IT isn't every-day that Rmi Krug, chairman of the world's most exclusive Champagnes house, invites me to lunch.

It would have been churlish to refuse and anyway I wanted to experience Krug's Ros throughout a meal at one of London's finest restaurants - Roussillon in Pimlico.

Rmi told the small party around the table that he had carefully chosen the menu to accompany the wine that was superb with both the warm salad of Scottish lobster tails followed by roast duck - cooked pink, of course - with a hint of Sichuan pepper and sweet and sour vegetables.

The dessert, rich crunchy chocolate and praline with raspberries, would, in my view, have needed a Taylor's 20-year old Tawny Port to tame it!

Krug's two top Champagnes, Grande Cuve and Ros, are made by blending together top wines from a number of vintages to create those sublimely subtle aromas and flavours that mark them out as simply outstanding.

The base wines are all fermented in small oak barrels and the wines rest on their first corks for at least six or more years.

The Grand Cuve has substantial gravitas, and while I can enjoy a glass or two on their own, I could never drink my way through a bottle as I can - and have - with Pol Roger or Billecart-Salmon.

The Ros is equally fine, but not quite as heavy.

It makes a romantic apritif and at £160 a bottle might be classed as "exclusively for footballers wives", if it were not for the sheer elegance and excellence that they would probably never be able to appreciate it in a month of cup finals.

Would I pay that much for a bottle of Champagne? Well, no, simply because I don't have the money.

But if I did, then there would be a bottle or two in my cellar for very special occasions.

A few weeks ago I was on Radio WM talking about my new book - Destination Champagne - with an interviewer who proudly told me that he can't tell the difference between a well-chilled Cava and luxury Champagne.

Well, neither can I.

Champagne should never be served too cold because it just dumbs down the taste buds.

To savour all the excellence from Krug's Ros just leave it in an ice bucket for 20 minutes with ice and cold water.