Ignore the champagne snobs, charmat method fizz is charming

It may taste less complex, it’s certainly cheaper, but some of these sparkling wines have a joy all of their own Taste the Difference Conegliano Prosecco, Italy 2018 (£8, Sainsbury’s ) In Champagne it’s called ‘méthode champenoise’, elsewhere it’s known as ‘traditional method’, but either way, the message is the same: to get great sparkling wine you have to follow the champagne recipe of first making a still wine, then making it ferment a second time in bottle. But that’s not the only way to make fizz, or even the most popular. Most prosecco is made by performing that second fermentation in a pressurised tank, a method known as charmat. The process is cheaper and the resulting wine may be less complex (forget all those toasty, briochey flavours), but as millions of drinkers know, charmat wines, such as Sainsbury’s from the Conegliano district of Prosecco country in Italy’s Veneto, have a sherbetty fruity-floral foaminess and charm of their own. Fitz Sparkling Wine, Sussex, England NV ( £22, Fitz ) Snobbery