What Champagne to buy for Christmas 2025, from Krug to Moet
It was with a light step that I made my way to a tasting of Moet-Hennessy’s champagnes. To add spice to the occasion, it took place in Langham’s Brasserie, off Piccadilly, the scene of much revelry over the years.
Moet-Hennessy, which has been part of the Louis Vuitton Group since 1987, owns some of the world’s finest and best-known champagnes: Moet & Chandon itself, its famous vintage wine Dom Perignon, Ruinart, Krug and Veuve Clicquot. The tasting was dedicated to exploring Moet-Hennessy’s vintage champagnes and to comparing the way in which champagne ages when bottled in magnums (150cl bottles) with how it ages in ordinary 75cl bottles. There were also a number of rosé champagnes. For a fizz-lover, it is the equivalent for a racing enthusiast of being invited to a top Newmarket stable to look at the inmates.
Vintage champagne has an aura about it: it’s the drink of monarchs and aristocrats, commercial titans, rappers, and film stars, high rollers everywhere. A blend of wines of a single year, it is only made when all the variables that affect the growth and ripening of grapes align to produce a superb wine. It’s also rarer and therefore more expensive than the non-vintage variety: of the 22.3 million bottles of champagne imported to Britain in 2024, only 1.8 per cent was vintage, according to the Bureau du Champagne UK.
The grapes are vinified in the same way as standard, non-vintage champagne but are kept longer in bottle. The regulations prescribe that non-vintage champagne is aged for a minimum of 15 months in bottle, whereas vintage champagne must be cellared for a minimum of 36 months. This additional time in bottle imparts greater depth, character and subtlety. In time, the wine darkens – often acquiring a golden glow – and the mousse (the French term for the bubbles) softens.
In praise of the magnum
A magnum of champagne makes a statement. It suggests wealth, flamboyance, even a touch of the wide boy. In Brideshead Revisited, Rex Mottram is characterised disparagingly by Evelyn Waugh as being the man who orders “the second magnum, and the fourth cigar” in a nightclub, with “the chauffeur kept waiting hour after hour without compunction”. But there are nonetheless sound reasons for drinking champagne bottled in such a way.
The magnum contains a smaller ratio of air to wine than champagne bottled in a regular bottle – and given ‘air is the enemy of champagne’, this is a benefit. As one expert wrote “a wise man will be content to consider the magnum as the ideal container for champagne”. Magnums also tend to be disgorged later than standard bottles so the wine will spend longer on the lees, thereby imparting more flavour.
The wines on display at Moet-Hennessy were all so magnificent it was hard to pick a favourite. Dom Perignons from the vintages of 2006, 2012 and 2015 were all fabulous: utterly delicious, as befits a marque that’s defined vintage champagne since its launch in 1936. (The longest established vintage champagne, incidentally, is generally reckoned to be Roederer Cristal, which was first launched in 1876 at the behest of Tsar Alexander II of Russia.)
The Dom Perignon Rosé 2009, a wine of great refinement and distinction, was offered in both magnum and bottle format, allowing a comparison of the development of the wine in the two bottlings over time. To my mind, wine in the magnum seemed to be the more mature of the two. Likewise, magnums and bottles of Veuve Clicquot’s Grande Dame 2015 showed that the bottle was further ahead in the ageing process than the magnum, although both were magnificent.
The Dom Ruinart Rosé 2007 was also offered in magnums and bottles. Both are exceptional wines, although the magnum seemed perhaps to have a touch more presence. The wine that stood out was the Krug 2011, a sensational glass of wine, filling the mouth with richness, depth and power, and lingering long on the finish. It is a more old-fashioned style of champagne; drinkers wanting a lighter, more floral, perhaps more subtle glass might wish to look elsewhere but the Krug 2011 was my favourite.
Sadly, these fabulous wines are not cheap: the Dom Perignon Rosé 2009 is £990 per magnum, while Dom Perignon 2012 and 2015 vintages cost £200 a bottle. The Grande Dame 2015 is a £350 per magnum and £165 a bottle. The Dom Ruinart Rosé is £530 a magnum and £245 a bottle.
The good news, however, is that the Moet-Hennessy portfolio also contains some more affordable champagnes. The Ruinart Blanc de Blancs is top-quality wine offering everything one looks for in a good champagne but will only cost you £84. Likewise, the Brut Imperial – Moet & Chandon’s best-selling champagne – is available in a 2025 End of Year Limited Edition in a smart scarlet festive livery at £45 a bottle, with a rosé at £52 a bottle.
Cole Porter famously sang “I get no kick from champagne” but I’d hazard that had the great lyricist joined me at this Moet-Hennessy tasting, he might have decided the line needed revising.