Lanson Champagne is available at Tesco for only £ 15.19. How about picking up a bottle of Nicolas Feuillate Brut at £14.24? There are 3 more choices around the same price. Heidsieck Monopole Blue Top being sold by Sula in India a year ago before they switched to Remy Cointreau whose portfolio includes Piper Heidsieck as well, was available for £14.24 last week, according to their website.
Although not much of a deal, Piper Heidsieck is available at £18-much cheaper than its duty-free price of over $40 at the Delhi airport (so much for the low prices at duty-free!). Duval-Leroy Fleur de Champagne Premier Cru, NV is available for £13.99 only - cut further down to £13.
The cheapest Champagne available at the UK supermarkets is Dubois Caron Champagne at £ 12 at Asda-below which it might be better to pick up a decent sparkling wine like a good quality Prosecco or Cava. The best deal is perhaps that of Piper Heidsieck for £ 15 at Asda where the Heidsieck Dry Monopole is also available for the same price. Sainsbury, one of the ‘Top Four’ of UK does not have much to offer except Henry Dumanois Brut NV for £15.
It is doubtful that these Champagnes are going to be loss leaders with a couple of cases available at these low prices. It does reflect on the standard margins on Champagne, the normal high promotions costs notwithstanding. Jane Parkinson, a British award- winning journalist and a colleague at the just concluded Puglia Best Wine event concurs while adding that since the shoppers buy big volumes of wine and champagne at Christmas, the supermarkets drop the prices to perhaps their cost price in a bid to attract bigger footfalls. She admits to having been slightly ‘snobbish’ about recommending buying quality Champagne from supermarkets but concedes that occasionally they do have some good quality for the discerning and knowledgable customers. A case in point is when one of these chains bought a huge stock of the premium champagne -Bollinger and started advertising and selling at 50% discounted prices, upsetting the champagne house but nevertheless offering an unusual bargain to the customer.
Hyatt Regency Delhi deals a good hand
While our London subscribers ought to pick up a few cases of the Champagne at special price, Delhi has at least one option to enjoy it in a restaurant (one hopes there are more such promotions coming up during the festive season.) Laurent Perrier (LP) is normally available at the China Kitchen for Rs.8,000 – steep but standard price for Champagne in most 5-star hotels. But as a special promotion it is now being made available at Rs. 800 a glass or even the full bottle at Rs. 4000 (taxes extra), perhaps the cheapest price anywhere in Delhi (if you know of any other place, do let us know).
Considering it is normally available at Duty Free shops for around $50 (Rs.2600 at today’s prices), it is a great offer that one can’t refuse. At least I couldn’t when I visited the restaurant a couple of weeks ago and I unabashedly recommend ordering it at this restaurant.
Subhash Arora
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