This is NOT a good Champagne. prominent notes of cheese, week-old prawn and festering urine, with little else, this is the perfect present for people who dont know any better... i do however, respect the dichotomy that the winery has concocted, whereby they produce rubbish (this bottle) for the ignorant masses whilst also selling a quality product under a different label for those who command real substance from their champagne. to think that Dom Pérignon is produced at the same winery is a testament to how little effort the company must put into this bottling. think of this not as a symbol of unadulterated class but of undying ignorance and desperate self-consciousness capable only of the lower-class British/American/Australian public. this truly is a hideous bottling of pure dishwater.
The M/C Brut Imperial I would rate as "best" in its price category, and if price is were the only object, one could no doubt do better. Life for the vast majority, however - and this is by no means confined the the "lower classes" - is usually a matter of balancing cost and value. Many products with high cost are not discernibly "better" - in any objective way - than those of more moderate price. My only disappointment with M/C was its apparent decision a few years back, to stop shipping this product to the U.S., shifting its sales, rather, to Asia - which is perhaps more profitable, and lines the pockets of fewer middlemen. This decision was nevertheless a bit snotty, considering who saved whose ass in the past two world wars - and the liklihood, moreover, of a third such occasion arising. In the meantime, hats off to Master of Malt for making the Brut Imperial available in the U.S.