Champagne for Christmas

I hope you can forgive the increase in prices on the column this week, I promise it is a once-a-year event, and only because I want to talk about Champagne.

Of course there are Champagnes out there at bargain prices (and not all are thin and acidic) but it would not do justice to the region to ignore the great houses.

One Champagne House I have always had affection for is Charles Heidsieck, which for many years was the Aer Lingus on-board Champagne. My wife worked in the airline leasing business in the 1990s and thanks to the generosity of flight crews we always had a supply of snipes (quarter bottles) in our fridge which we drank at all times of the day (sometimes even for elevenses).