Let's get fizzical

YOU’VE gotta have bubbles during the Christmas or Hogmanay festivities, but it doesn’t have to be champagne. If you fancy buck’s fizz (champagne and orange juice) or black velvet (champagne and Guinness), you’ll find that a good-quality fizz works just as well, and is a good deal cheaper.

Spanish cava, produced just outside Barcelona, was until the early 1970s labelled and sold as cheap champagne in the UK. This is no longer allowed: sparkling wine must have been produced in the Champagne region of France to be labelled as champagne. Things are different in Spain, however. There, ask for champagne and, more than likely, you’ll be poured a glass of cava. You may not notice the difference either, as the top producers employ a method very similar to the French model of production and bottle-ageing. Those who do so can put ‘traditional method’ on the label. This, of course, does not necessarily guarantee quality - there are so many permutations of grape variety and quality, of yeasts and of length of ageing time in the bottle that if you find one you really like you should buy as much as you can afford.

NV Cava, Freixenet, Brut, Cordon Negro, Traditional Method, NE Spain, 11.5%, 7.49

This lacks flavour and has a two-sip fizz. No wonder Sainsbury’s is offering it as a two-for-the-price-of-one. 4/10 Widely available

NV Cava, Brut, Codorniu Cuve Raventos, Traditional Method, NE Spain, 11.5%, 7.99

At the offer price of a fiver when you buy two, this gives drinkable bubbles that won’t make the wallet fizz over. 7/10 Majestic

NV Cava, Brut, Traditional Method, Produced for Marks & Spencer, NE Spain, 11.5%, 4.49

If very dry fizz is your thing, these bubbles will hit the spot. 7/10 Marks & Spencer (reduced from 5.99 until after New Year)

NV Cava Brut, Bohigas, NE Spain, 11.5%, 7

This is an easy-drinker produced from local indigenous grapes. 8/10 Decanter Wines (01372 376127). Minimum order six bottles

1998 Cava, OR, Brut, Gran Reserva, Oriol Rossell, NE Spain, 11.5%, 9.99

A quality cava, revealing juicy notes of lemons and firm apples, but it’s hard to shell out a tenner for it when you can get branded champagne for around this price. 6/10 Raeburn Fine Wines

NV Cava, Brut, Tanners, NE Spain, 11.5%, 6.80

I haven’t tasted a better non-vintage cava. The biscuit nuances are so well integrated that it could easily pass for champagne. 10/10 Tanners (01743 234500)

1998 Cava, Brut, Selected for Somerfield, NE Spain, 11.5%, 6.99

A very dry sparkler that reveals a palatable mix of sherbet and crisp apples. 4/10 Somerfield (0131 343 1159)

1999 Cava, Extra Brut, Clos Monistrol, NE Spain, 11.5%, 7.99

Very, very drinkable. Although labelled extra brut (extra dry), it drinks more like a medium-dry. 9/10 Sainsbury’s

2001 Cava, Brut, Selected for Asda, NE Spain, 11.5%, 5.93

This may soften and harmonise after a year in the cellar. But if you want something to drink now, pay an extra couple of quid and pick something else from this list. 4/10 Asda