News

Supermarket Champagne discounting less prominent this year – but here are the best deals

29 October 2022 By Giles Fallowfield

It’s late October, in the run-up to Christmas 2022, and inevitably Champagne discounting is starting – at least it is among the UK’s highly competitive grocers.

While we have already seen some attractive deals, there certainly seems to be some truth in the Champenois insistence that stock is short and therefore discounting, will be less frequent and lower key. So, for the moment there are few signs the supermarkets are once again going to use champagne to try to bring hard pressed consumers into their stores.

ASDA has already run a deal on its Extra Special Louis Bernard Vintage champagne from the fine 2013 harvest on a ‘four for the price of three’ deal at the start of October. This bought the single bottle price of this attractive, sherbetty Chanoine-made fizz down from £26 to a very reasonable £19, (if you bought four bottles of wine from the deal). Adding weight to the impression 2013 should not be in the shadow of the 2012 vintage.

And until 2 November ASDA is offering 25% off purchases of six or more bottles of sparkling wine, some of which are already discounted, but this blanket discount doesn’t apply to champagne, which maybe a better reflection of the stock position for various larger brands of champagne. [The best deal here for anyone looking for a top-class fizz from outside Champagne is the Ferrari Trento Brut which is discounted by £4 to £19 but drops to an enticing £14.25 if you buy six bottles.]

Nevertheless, there are currently reasonable single bottle discounts on four major brands: Bollinger Special Cuvée, down £10 to £40 and Bollinger Rosé down £4 to £46; Moët & Chandon Brut Impérial down £6 to £34; Lanson Black Label and Rosé, each down £7 to £28 and £32 respectively, plus Taittinger Brut Réserve down £7 to £32.

Until the end of this month (31 October) Tesco is operating a similar policy with only Piper Heidsieck Rosé Sauvage, which has a special Clubcard price of £35 discounted by a further 25% to £26.25 in a specific deal that runs until 7 November, already reduced.

While every other champagne has 25% off if you buy six, no particular deals stand out, but the vintage offering for Moët & Chandon Grand Vintage 2013 which comes down to £36.75 under the deal and Veuve Clicquot 2012 vintage for £41.25, perhaps have the most appeal.

Sainsbury’s too has a 25% off six bottles deal, that runs until 1 November and undercuts the Tesco Moët & Chandon Grand Vintage 2013 price, by running a single bottle discount (down £5) on this high-quality Moët vintage priced at £45 a single bottle and dropping to £33.75 if you buy six bottles.

The only other single bottle price discount at Sainsburys is on Pommery Brut Royal which is down
£10 to £30 a bottle, dropping to £22.50 if you buy six.

Waitrose is about to start a 25% blanket discount on six bottle wine purchases, but as is its practice in recent years, no single bottle discounts apply at the same time. The deal starts on 2 November and runs for two weeks until 15 November. This is the time to buy those champagnes that you rarely get to see with a quarter of the price knocked off, like the Fleury Blanc de Noirs (£35 down to £26.25), Le Mesnil vintage 2013 (£37 down to £27.75), Vilmart Cuvée Cellier Premier Cru (down from £46.99 to £35.24) or Palmer Blanc de Blancs (£53 down to £39.75).

Sherry Week celebrates gastronomic potential of historic wines

Spain 'needs to learn how to market our fine wines', producer claims