CHAMPAGNE XMAS PRICE WAR STARTS

Published: 23 July, 2008

By Giles Fallowfield

The opening shots in the great pre-Christmas discount war have been fired, with prices on Champagne slashed to below 10 a bottle and own-label Cava back under 3 at the supermarkets. The discounts appear even more generous when you add in the fact that all the major multiples are offering a further 5% discount on purchases of six bottles or more. ASDA is predictably at the forefront of the deals, with Charles Lafitte NV Champagne down 5 to 9.97 (9.47 if you buy six bottles or more) from 13 November through to 17 January, and Lanson Black Label's price down to 14.92 over the same period. ASDA also has the lowest Cava price, reducing its own-label brand by 1.04 to just 2.92 a bottle. Tesco's best price of 12.99 on Paul Boutet NV between 22 October and 18 November looks a bit lame in comparison, although Tesco's offering would have looked stronger had the planned deal on Louis Roederer run (down 5 to 19.99), but there wasn't sufficient stock to do it. A deal cutting the price of Veuve Clicquot by 3 to 21.99 at Safeway was also shelved because they wouldn't have had enough stock to last to Christmas. Safeway also has Mumm Cordon Rouge NV down 4 to 16.99, although there are better deals around on Mumm, which appears to be challenging Lanson for the discounting crown. At Tesco it's down 4.50 to 14.96, and at Waitrose the price plummets by 6.60 to 13.39. Sainsbury's also includes Mumm in its three for the price of two' deals that run between 12 and 25 November, during which time it sells at the equivalent of 13.33 a bottle (for three). Other brands in Sainsbury's three-for-two promo include Nicolas Feuillatte NV, equivalent to 11.99 each (for three).

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