Wine: Burst the bubble

This will sound spoilt, but staring into a glass of champagne the other day, I found myself wishing I was drinking something else. There are times when only bubbles are sprightly enough to capture and celebrate a moment. But there are also times when a bottle of fizz is opened as a treat or reward, and oh how I wish that £25 had been spent on something else. The champenois have been very clever in training us to think of a bottle of champagne as an event, not a drink. It puts the expenditure into a different mental compartment, so we're happier to break into a stash of tenners rather than squeezing a bottle into the night's food budget. But if only we'd occasionally move slowly away from the champagne – or the cava or prosecco, for that matter – and upgrade our choice of still wine instead, how much more fun we'd have. Let's start at the bottom and work up. Lose the cava that tastes of old tinsel and tinned vegetables, and try instead a refreshing white such as Finest Palestra Rueda Verdejo 2009 (£6.99, Tesco ; 12.5% abv). Made from Spain's answer to sauvignon blanc, this is crisp and grapefruit-ish, with a tiny suggestion of fennel tops. Prosecco prices seem to be nudging ever upwards and, as cooler weather approaches, I'd be tempted to spend the money on a red to go with dinner instead. I loved Mas de Subira Priorat 2006 (£9.74 when you buy two Spanish wines, Majestic ; 14.5% abv), which is plush and scented and opens up to your nose like a deep red velvet rose – a superb find at less than a tenner (my apologies also for not managing to squeeze this into a column at its even cheaper introductory price). Climbing upwards, there is absolutely no contest between a supermarket own-label glass of champagne and the fragrant joy of this pinot noir: St Aubin 1er Cru 2006 (£17.99, Marks & Spencer ; 13.5% abv) is just beginning to develop, so that you catch a hint of autumn leaves and mushrooms on the nose. A white? Tilly's Vineyard Henschke 2007 (£13.95, slurp.co.uk , £14.50, Noel Young Wines ; 13% abv), from Adelaide, is a textured, semillon-based blend (with some chardonnay and sauvignon blanc in the mix) that smells of meadows and has a fierce energy. Finally, in place of a bottle of Moët, I'd have a chardonnay made by an American in Burgundy and consider myself to have bought a bargain: I've been dreaming of the energy and sunlight that seems to be trapped in Alex Gambal Fixin 2007 (£22.50, slurp.co.uk ; 13% abv) ever since I tried it. [email protected] Photographs: Full Stop Photography .