The Drink Column: Three cheers for champagne

It's odd to think there was a champagne drought back in 1989. That was before recession and the 1991 Gulf war brought such a swift drop in sales that Tesco was able to launch a £7.99 champagne a year later as an opening salvo in the under-£10-a-bottle supermarket champagne wars. Despite a similarly gloomy global scenario today, there's one entente between the UK and France that remains more cordiale than ever. The UK is back at the top of the champagne export league with 31 million bottles dispatched across the channel last year, 26 per cent up on the post-millennium hangover year.

The Champagne Bureau was celebrating these figures in London this month, asserting that "unlike other markets, the British do not consider champagne as purely a drink of celebration". The French actually drink nearly six bottles to our one, yet the supermarket champagne wars of a decade ago have helped make champagne, if not an everyday drink, at least a less élitist product.

The Champagne Bureau also put the special relationship and the quality of the pukka brands to the test with its annual tasting. Each of the 65 champagne brands could display three of their products; most put up their latest non-vintage and vintage champagnes. The third option varied from rosé to the mawkish confections called "rich" which the champagne houses are anxious to make fashionable.

The reputation of a brand stands or falls on its non-vintage. By and large, these acquitted themselves well but not always with the expected results. There are fewer gum-stripping examples than there were a year ago, but it wasn't always the famous names which did best. Veuve Clicquot is young and featureless and Bollinger surprisingly rustic, while Moët et Chandon and Pommery lack distinction, and both Heidsieck Monopole and Mumm taste more like cava. Roederer and Pol Roger, in contrast, are as classy as ever, while best value on the shelf are Lanson Black Label with real depth of flavour and finesse (down from £18.94 to £12.94 at Asda from 31 March), Taittinger, excellent value at three for two at Oddbins (£16.66) until the end of the month, and Charles Heidsieck's toasty Mise en Cave 1997. Full marks go to Jacquesson, Henriot and Billecart-Salmon.

Vintages are only declared when the quality justifies it, and vintage champagne – fuller and more lingering – must have at least three years' ageing in the bottle. On the whole, vintage champagnes justify their superior price tags because so many are the product of the fine vintages of 1995 and 1996. But while 1995 is voluptuously accessible and ready for the popping, 1996 is a vintage with such bracingly crisp acidity that most will need to be kept for at least two years more and in the best cases, five to 10.

The 1995 Veuve Clicquot is back on form, but not the 1995 Mumm Cordon Rouge or the rather average 1996 Moët et Chandon. Perfect now are the seriously stylish 1995 Pol Roger and 1995 Piper-Heidsieck, the latter if you like your champagne super-toasty. Lesser-known success stories include the foamingly creamy and full-flavoured 1995 Henriot, the ultra-stylish 1995 Deutz and an intense, delicate 1997 Billecart-Salmon Cuvée Nicolas-François. It is still a little premature to pop the corks on the 1996 Roederer, Lanson and Bollinger, but I don't doubt that in time they'll also be something to celebrate.