Crémant: the party fizz to replace prosecco

Crémant – French fizz made outside Champagne – is a good alternative. Photograph: Poike/Getty Images/iStockphoto

I don’t know if anyone else finds Christmas interminable, but assuming you’re not as big a grouch as I am, chances are you’ll be having – or at least planning – a party over the next few weeks. At which you will be drinking… what? Prosecco is my guess and, of course, there’s plenty of that around.

But what else is an option if you’re after sparkling wine? Apart from cava, which is the only fizz that can compete with prosecco on price, there’s not a great deal of choice under a tenner. (Tesco’s Finest Vintage Reserve Cava is a good buy, even at its full price of £9, though it’s often on offer.) There’s pignoletto, which is obviously on the shelf because supermarkets have sussed that anything beginning with “p” and ending with an “o” sells shedloads. If you haven’t tried it, Waitrose has the pleasantly fruity Chiarli Vecchia Modena Pignoletto Spumante Brut (11.5%) on offer at £7.99 at present, and it has far more character than the average prosecco.

Around the £10 mark, crémant – the name the French give to fizz made outside Champagne – is probably your best bet. It tends to be made traditionally – though it’s not often given the same ageing as champagne – and is very drinkable; Alsace, Burgundy and the Loire are good sources. You may be surprised to find that Iceland stocks a perfectly decent one: the 12% Château de Champteloup Brut 2016 Crémant de Loire, which looks – and tastes – quite a bit posher than its £10 price tag. Lidl manages to undercut that, though, with a creamy, mainly chardonnay-based Crémant de Bourgogne (12.5%) at £7.99.

Then there’s Tesco’s reliable Blanquette de Limoux (12.5%) at £9 in its Finest range, which owes its attractively soft, appley character to the local mauzac grape. This one’s a good option if you find champagne a bit dry and want a change from prosecco (and who doesn’t?). Like the Crémant de Limoux below, it’s made by the highly professional cooperative Sieur d’Arques.

Weirdly, champagne, particularly own-label champagne, often works out cheaper than many champagne alternatives, particularly when it’s on one of those 25%-off-six-bottles deals at the supermarket, although, frustratingly, I find they tend to take place before most of us actually get round to thinking about buying our Christmas wine. Waitrose, for example, currently has its rich, full, toasty Blanc de Noirs (12.5%) on offer at £18.39 (it’s normally £22.99), which is a really good deal.