Beer drinkers expose 'bubbles' aficionados

Picture / Amos Chapple

Champagne is a bit like a high maintenance mistress, according to wine buffs - best when young, and if treated badly she turns a bit sour.

So wine retailers have warned that buying parallel-imported champagne, of which Moet & Chandon is the most common variety, is a risky business.

Jeff Poole of the Fine Wine Delivery Company said it might come cheaper, but no saving could compensate for the loss of the quintessential raisons d'etre for drinking champagne - taste and bubbles.

But the parallel importers of Moet - the Foodtown and Woolworths supermarket chains and The Mill Liquor Save - argue that importing directly, rather than through the official distributor, means consumers can get the same drink for less money.

They were certain of the quality of their Moet.

Mr Poole said parallel-imported champagne was usually less bubbly, older, might have sat in hot weather in overseas ports and was unlikely to be shipped in refrigerated containers.

"If you want the true champagne experience, you will be disappointed. A true champagne drinker would rather drink Lindauer because at least you get something with bubbles and it is fresh," he said.

Intrigued as to whether it really made a difference, the Weekend Herald set up its own mini-wine test by a panel of two beer drinkers, two regular wine drinkers and two professional wine tasters - Herald wine writer Joelle Thomson and Master of Wine Stephen Bennett.

On the table were two of the Fine Wine Delivery Company's bottles, on special at $63.99 each, and two parallel-imported bottles from different Foodtown supermarkets, where next week it will be on special at $49.95.

The taste test was conducted blind, in silence and without consultation during the tasting.

Mr Poole's claims that even novices could spot the difference between the wines proved correct - but it was apparently only the novices who could.

The two beer drinkers on the panel, including me, correctly picked both parallel-imported wines.

However, Mr Bennett believed both Fine Wine bottles were the parallel-imported ones, and Ms Thomson said she thought one Fine Wine bottle was a parallel import.

Both regular wine drinkers picked one right and one wrong.

Both beer drinkers thought the Fine Wines' Moet seemed crisper, cleaner and more bubbly.

Of the same bottle, Mr Bennett said: "It was buggered. It was the one wine in the line-up that I would send back in a restaurant. It was oxidised. Some people might enjoy it because it is nutty, but that to me is champagne past its best."

Of a parallel-imported bottle, one beer drinker said "it made me flinch". However, Mr Bennett said the bottle was, in his opinion, "lighter and fresher to taste".

He said the small sample size made it hard to draw any firm conclusions about the difference between the two, especially given the natural variations in each and every bottle of champagne.

Ms Thomson said that in a much larger tasting she had done, there was a distinct difference between the traditionally imported bottles and parallel-imported ones, which were "consistently bad".

Mark Brosnan, Progressive Enterprises general manager of merchandise, said its Moet was from the Champagne region with a stopover in Rotterdam, Holland. It arrived in Auckland three weeks ago.

Lion Nathan's fine wine division, Distinguished Vineyards, is the official distributor of Moet in New Zealand.

Its general manager, Jonathon Hesketh, said buying parallel-imported champagne was a "buyer beware" scenario.

Mr Poole said he stood by his claims.