The Fat Expat Five

One of The Fat Expat's expert, and of course deeply refined, tasting team. Note detritus...

After tasting over 50 champagnes from small houses and big name brands, recommended and discovered alike, we came up with the following ‘top five’. Each champagne was tasted by our group of six expert tasters (oops, sorry – Fat Expats) and notes were taken by the Worryingly Precise Josephine. Our group consisted of a journalist, a photographer, a PR, two teachers and an Emirates First Class Purser. As usual with everything that goes on with The Fat Expat, we’re not experts. We’re just the punters with the moolah that the producers want to extract from us. So we think our opinion’s just as valid as the next man’s. If perhaps a little more obsessive than average, at least we're not banging on about touches of peach, straw and perhaps a tapenade rounding into a creosote in the finish...

But we were all amazed at how the experience refined our palates. We all learned to enjoy champagne warmer than we had in the past – this is where the wine starts to truly please. We all had our previous conceptions and preferences totally overturned by the experience. And we all came away from the whole silly week with a definite preference for certain champagnes and a great deal more respect for the drink itself.

And yes, we enjoyed it all just fine, thank you...

TheFat Expat Five

Dom Perignon 2000
Veuve Cliquot Vintage Rich Reserve 2002,
Moet et Chandon Grand Vintage Rose 2000,
Mercier Vendange 2003
Lanson Brut 1997

We broke our 'nothing over 50 Euro' for the DP 2000, which weighed in a over double that. Other than that, these wines are all at roughly comparable prices.