Champagne Magnum Piper-Heidsieck, Essentiel Extra Brut NV (Magnum), France

Go big or go home - try the magnum this means a stunning boost in a longer-aged magnum release, making it a terrific value cuvée that can give a few prestige cuvées a run for their money.

The latest of Piper-Heidsieck's cuvées, Essentiel Blanc de Noirs, is a Pinot Noir and Meunier blend, combining black skin and white flesh grapes, that traditionally produces champagne with a strong character.

Based on the 2013 vintage, it's full of the year's bright intensity in charry roasted limes and grapefruit marmalade, generous with fragrant raspberry and toasted nuts, and fleshed out beautifully by almost four years of ageing post-disgorgement. Smooth, long and polished, there's not a hair out of place here.