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I can’t stress enough what great value is to be found among the better growers’ champagnes – those made by the people who grow the vines, as opposed to the wines blended by the big houses from grapes they buy in (and, in some cases, grow themselves). I don’t mean that these growers' champagnes are necessarily cheap. If you want champagne under £15 a bottle then scour the big retailers’ special offers (http://www.quaffersoffers.co.uk provides a useful guide to them). But if you want wines with real personality and balance – not tart, astringent, sweetened-up fizz – then look carefully at the 65 tasting notes below. Between £18 and £30 a bottle you can find some of France’s finest hand-crafted wines. Champagne is full of badly made growers’ champagnes, but almost all of those noted below have been hand-picked by such specialist UK importers as Fortnum & Mason, Lea & Sandeman, The Sampler, Vine Trail and The Winery. Most of them offer quite substantial discounts on champagne bought in quantity but I have given the full, per bottle price. (In the US importer Terry Theise is notable for his handpicked selection.) Current trends among these artisan producers include decreasing yields, increasing use of oak for fermenting and ageing the still wines, lower levels of dosage with the likes of Gimmonet, Larmandier-Bernier and Jérôme Prévost offering wines with no dosage at all, and wines that are rather less aggressively fizzy than the champagne norm. Many of these producers also give far more information about make up of the blend and disgorgement dates than the average champagne producer. But first, a fine fizz from England, just to get you in the mood:

Dumangin, Grande Réserve NV Champagne 17 Drink 2008-11 Tight knit, gentle and perfumed. Not too fizzy. GV £24.50 Yapp Bros .

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