Can a Master Sommelier Spot the Champagne? $20 to $85 Line Up

Please tell me that's $20. This is better than many champagnes. Sparkling is in a wonderful spot. Don't think it's the equivalent of goon when you want to drink well and the world is drinking better and less. Think towards sparkling. Really, really awesome. It's really delicious. Even that as an aperitif is really, really good. I've been to so many events where you walk in and there's a glass of champagne. People go, oh, this is a great event. If you put this on an event, people will be like, oh, this is sparkling wine. It's not a champagne. There's cracking sparkling out there. Of course. We all know about how great grower champagne is at the same cost, but people don't know about it. I'm not taking that away from champagne. But you are paying a bit for the postcode. Of course, like Burgundy, same thing. It's the image, the perception. It's the marketing of Moët versus the reality. Yeah, does it always justify the price? Sometimes not. And there you have it. The time that I beat a master sommelier in a blind wine tasting. Drink it in. And I will. You saw or heard the trailer, and now it's time to put it into action. We have four sparkling wines in front of us. Well, can I say Prosecco is a sparkling? Yeah, of course. Okay. Prosecco totally is a sparkling. But we have one champagne in front of us. Yeah. So, of course, champagne is a sparkling wine, but it comes from the region of Champagne. Therefore, it's the only one that's allowed to be labeled that. Now, we've gone for a simple Muët. I say simple. That might be controversial. Just because, you know, most people can identify that in the lineup because it's the most drank In the world, Carlos, let's go to a mega lapse or a time lapse of us going through these and we'll just pick out if we can find the champagne in this lineup. Cool. Let's do it. Oh, good. It's way more difficult than I thought for me. Number one is delicious. Yeah. Number one, I think some champagne, we've gone through the five wines, assess them quickly on the nose, quickly on the palate and I'm going to go first because if I follow a master sommelier, I'm just going to say, of course I agree. Number two is definitely the Prosecco, leanest of them all, very fruity, different. Number three, I found really beautiful. I'm interested to find out what that is because that is great. Lifted, fresh, fruity, beautiful. Less alcoholic. But it's not champagne. Yeah. Number four, I thought could be champagne. Number five, I enjoyed, but I think it's the Yarra Valley and I've never had it before, the Estella. I'm just making that up because number one, I think is a champagne. The reason why is it is the most biscuity, brioche-y, brioche-y. Yeah. On the nose, I think it's like quintessentially champagne. My guess is number one. Number one is my favorite. Because of that, so much brioche, toasty, etc. I would love if this was Arras, but I don't think it is. I actually think it's the Quartz Reef because it's a vintage. Yeah, 2019. And if you are like me and have no idea what a Quartz Reef is, stick around because we'll both find out together. That's for me the Quartz Reef, but, you know, it could be the Champagne. But I think 2019, long time on lees, you definitely feel all of that. Number two, I agree with you, that may be the Prosecco. Uh, really just vibrant, like, you know, still a delicious drink, but it's, it's not traditional method. Number three. Uh, I agree with you. It was quite lifted, quite fresh, quite fruity. I probably think that that would be the Yarra Valley. And then for me, the Champagne is either four or five, Moët & Chandon. So I sort of like number four, uh, and I find more that the Autolus is that toasty. No. 5 also has that character, but maybe a little bit less time on lees. I think that No. 5 is actually the Champagne, No. 4 is the Arras, Yarra Valley. Prosecco and, uh, Quartz Reef. The only one that I will say that I didn't put in this lineup is the Stefano Lubiano. Ah, that would have been great. The reason I had a vintage one over Christmas and it hit all of the champagne features, like it was aged, it was beautiful and brioche-y, I wanted to give some new producers that we haven't had on the show a chance before. All right, Martin, I've guessed number one. I think it's five, five, five. Number five. Number five. Yeah. Oh, nice, got it. What a champion. I'm going to repeat what Martin is saying to us. Number one is the Quartz Reef. Number two, Prosecco. Number three. Arras, that was the fun, yeah. The Arras, I thought it was Yarra Valley. So number four is Yarra Valley. Number four. So you just had these two spun around. Okay, oh wow, number four, I really like number four. Yarra Valley. Yeah, I called that as Yarra Valley. I thought that was the Arras because that, to me, kind of resembles a little bit that high quality. Mate, tell me about number one. Number one is really good, eh? Yeah, it's the best in the lineup. Yeah, for me, it is really complex. We should also point out, it's a vintage, the rest of them are all Brut. Yes. Big difference though. But how much did you pay for your Chandon, did you say? The cheapest I could get was $85 for this bottle. Now, I know Moet can go for 50 to 60 bucks for non-special. I went onto all the apps. None of them had it cheaper than 85 bucks with delivery. So yeah, I paid, unfortunately, $85 for Moet. The Quartz Reef cost me $40. That's retail or? No, can't give wholesale prices, Mr. I'm-a-master-Solomon-get-cheaper prices. $80. Okay, so the same price for a very different experience. Really, like that, how tall is that you expect, you know, from, you know, the breakdown of the East and... Secondary fermentation. Where can we buy that bottle though? Because I've never seen that bottle before in my life. Where? Yeah, Specialized Bottle Shop, Quartz Reef. I'm not sure who brings it to Australia. Will you put it in MS Wine Club? Yeah, 100% for Christmas. We're going to put some. Gives Carlos' business a plug. We're going to put a link below. Carlos is going to have a bunch of them as a flash sale in his business. Done. Great. Fantastic. All right. So by the time this comes out, click the link below. They might be sold out by the time you get them, but he's going to put a few dozen on so you can get this at, what are you going to charge? 70 bucks? I've been to so many events in my life. Where you walk in and there's a glass of champagne that's waiting for you and it is wet because people in the same way, I can't say the name. In the same way, you bring out a bottle that people go, oh, this is a great event. Does that make sense? Yeah. It's the image, the perception. It's the marketing of wine versus the reality. Yeah, we all know about how great grower champagne is at the same cost, but people don't know about it. If you put it on an event, people will be like, oh, what is this champagne? What's this ---- that they put on for 30 bucks that they found at Aldi? Yeah, that's the truth. Whereas it's a grower champagne, a single vineyard, an amazing family story. It's marketing and perception. We understand that. It was actually a wine account that we follow. I won't name that person, but they did this meme recently, which kind of led to me organizing this episode, which was when you rock up to an event and they're serving sparkling and it was like this vomiting meme of like someone from a movie and like, you know, people laughing going, oh my God, yeah, nothing worse than like going to a high-class event and they're sparkling. There's cracking sparkling out there. Of course. That's Stefano Lubiano. Yeah. Put it up on screen now. 100%. I shared with my family, my mum still talks about that wine from Tassie. It was an amazing experience. for a fraction of the price again. Yeah, that's Quartz Reef, the Arras. I mean, I'm really surprised with that Yarra Valley that we're going to taste later, but that's bloody awesome. Number four. And like, if you put this on an event, people will be like, oh, this is sparkling wine. It's not a champagne. But this is better. I mean, this is better than many champagne, you know, many. Saved your butt. And then Prosecco. I mean, Prosecco, you go on an event and the other thing happens as well. It's like, oh, I want a glass of champagne. And actually what people is pouring is Prosecco. But you're not going to tell them, look, actually, if you bring the bottle, sure, you explain them. But most often, you know, if Prosecco, why? Because it's cheap, it's cheerful, it's not complicated. It goes easily with canapés, you know, when you arrive at the place. It's simple, but it's also my least favorite in this lineup. That's fair. I mean, that's $10. So that's $20 retail. Australia? Retail, which means that is a bottle shop, and it's come from where? From King Valley, Northeast Victoria. So that's $20 bottle shop sparkling wine, you know, and it's reliable for the price that you buy and it's refreshing, it's crisp, it's dry. Compared to an $85, is the champagne three and a bit times better than the Prosecco? I'm not sure. Well, that is the thing. From a price perspective. Is the thing, is the thing. So that's, that's, that's a great analogy. So big shout to Dalzotto. Yes. We're not, we love you Dalzotto. By the way. And that's a great entry level. I didn't know it was 20 bucks. I'm going to be honest with you. I was judging my facial expressions were based off the fact I thought it was 60 bucks. Yeah. Well, there you go. 20 bucks on a bottle shop. That's how much it costs. Cheers to you. And, do you know who would like that? You see, like... Young drinkers would like that. Yeah. Do you know why? Because it's more lifted and there's more fruit than any of the other ones. More pineapple, mango, way more lifted. It's dry, but it's, you know, that... Of course. It's not fine bubble like champagne or sparkling, but again, it's a very different price as well. So, why did you pick... The champagne, how did you pick it? Well, it was between the last, the four and five. Why? Because those are the two that have the most autolysis outside of number one. Number one was the most, which for me, yes, is the vintage. So you knew the vintage. Yeah, it's the back vintage. So it's really, it's like really that toasty and whiskey, which is fine because you go for that. And that's why I called it champagne. Exactly. Because you're expecting that. But for me, it's really number four, number five that have the same, but turned down. So would be non-vintage. I thought number four was the Arras because I know that they go through that process as well. So a little bit more towards this direction. I'm surprised that this is the Yarra Valley number four because I thought it was Arras. It's stellar. Yeah, really good. Really, really good. I'm buying that for the, I'm definitely buying that for the restaurant. Oh, seriously? Yeah. I thought it was really good. So it's the Method Traditionnel Legacy Sparkling. It's a single vineyard. Less than 3,000 were made. Yeah, really? Wow. Yeah. Shout out to Graham Miller and the team at Domaine de Stella. $60 retail. $60. Great. We love profiling Australian wines on this show. We get sent a bunch of Australian wine, which is so lovely, but this is why you should be sending us wine, because we want you on the show. They just sent us this wine. I'd never tasted it before. I had a couple of their reds and their whites. Yeah. I just was like, let's do a sparkling episode, and it just arrived in the mail. No, awesome, awesome. Awesome. Yeah, I thought... Yeah, I totally thought that the Aris was number four because for me it's that profile. So really surprised with that bottle. Maybe just be a really good bottle. And then, yeah, number five, again, that out of all these is Biscuity Brioche. Yeah, I can taste that. It was between four and five for me. Less so number three, which is interesting because Aris is totally that style as well. So as a master sommelier who's working in restaurants and a big restaurant at the moment, how are people perceiving... Sparkling wine. Surprisingly, I thought we would be selling a lot more champagne. We have a champagne trolley with cocktails, et cetera. So a lot of people go for cocktails because it's a little bit quite unique how we present them as well. Champagne is okay sell. I thought it was more because obviously we are in Byron Bay, it's hot, it's all year round. A lot of people go for Prosecco. A lot of people try, you know, Pet Nats. A lot of people like to try even the sparkling wine that we have, which is Bouzer. So it's like a sweet rosé. Sparkling is really, really awesome. It's really delicious. Even that as an aperitif is really, really good. People is maybe not just drinking as much as I remember, or at least in the region. The stats tell the same, yeah. Sparkling wine, like even the label for Estella says, traditional method. They're all making champagne as they are in champagne houses across the world. We are just, and we, I mean, by the way, I understand champagne, like Krug. Unbelievable wine. Yeah. Like you can taste that and it's an experience. Yeah. You could blind taste that and go, please tell me that's $20. Like, it's so good. Good luck. I'm not taking that away from Champagne. Yeah. But you are paying a bit for the postcode. So you are paying for Champagne for the name, right? Of course. Like Burgundy, same thing. Like Burgundy, you pay to see Borgogna on a label, you know? Does he always justify the price? Sometimes not. I don't think so, yeah. Most of the times does when you get to a certain level. And I think in his lineup, he doesn't. At $80, it's actually the most expensive bottle on the lineup. Yeah. Um, I didn't think it was the best. Sparkling is in a wonderful spot. Don't think it's the equivalent of goon. Stop thinking that champagne is everything when you need to be drinking. Remember you are paying for marketing in a portion when you want to drink well and the world is drinking better and less. Think towards sparkling, and hopefully today we've given you at least two labels that you can now go to for a cheaper price point than maybe some of the bigger houses who don't need our support right now. I would say tree houses, easily. Arrows, Quartz Reef, and the cellar. Build a cellar. Love to you guys. Thank you so much. If you haven't followed us, please do. If you want to see anything, let us know in the comments. You can comment on Spotify. Not many people do. Comment on Spotify, comment on YouTube, give us a follow on Instagram, and we'll see you very soon. Sawood, my friend. Sawood. I'm going to sawood with that. I will sawood with the number one. Ah, finished one.