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- Don't get intimidated by all that elegant French on champagne bottles. Remember: It's just wine, and it's meant for drinking.
- We've researched and tested dozens of champagnes and sparkling wines to find the best ones you can buy online, and Louis Roederer Cristal Brut 2008 is our favorite.
Does champagne have to be vintage and aged for years and years to be enjoyed? Of course not. It's all about where and with whom you pop it. And there are ways to doctor up even the lowliest of sparkling wines. Cut them with a splash of OJ or toss in a sugar cube, and a glass or bottle of cruddy new world sparkling wine will go down like candy.
But, of course, there are bottles of champagne worth cherishing, and if you're going to go ahead and dish out, you want to make sure you're not getting duped, right? I do, at least, which is why I got in touch with a few sommeliers and wine importers to make sense of it all and to find the best champagne and sparkling wine you can get at a variety of price points.
First things first: It's widely believed that Dom Pérignon discovered Champagne in 1693, but bottle fermentation has been traced back to at least 1531 in Limoux, France. Also, Champagne originates from Champagne, France, and particularly five districts: Aube, Côte des Blancs, Côte de Sézanne, Montagne de Reims, and Vallée de la Marne.
These districts are about 90 miles northeast of Paris, and they're known for exceptionally sweet grapes, hence the widely beloved Champagne grape Cognac. This is why Californian "Champagne," despite what the Korbel might say, isn't Champagne at all, and anything available for anywhere south of about $30 might as well not be, either.
Once you get into a higher price range, you enter a bit of a gray, and highly subjective area where it comes down to minute personal preference if anything at all.
Ashleigh Barrowman, a France-based sommelier put it best: "Champagne is the classic example of perfect competition. It's all the same stuff, really."
This is especially true of non-vintage champagnes, Pierre Haury of Luneau USA Inc. Wine Imports further explained to me: "If you can't afford champagne but you want a quality sparkling wine from France, Crémant, from outside Champagne (from Loire, best is Bourgogne) is better at [about] $18 than bad champagne at $25. It's drier than Prosecco, and a little more expensive, but much, much better."
Yes, sparkling wines from outside the region, confusingly enough, are also sometimes called "Champagne" thanks to a loophole, though that's a technicality mostly decided by customs and trade agreements, and only certain brands outside of Champagne are allowed to label their wine as "Champagne" - don't be fooled by Californian sparkling wine). True champagne is a delicate matter, and if you're not willing or able to dish out for it, Italian Prosecco and Spanish Cava more than suffice and often pair better with a wider array of foods.
If you do want to sip and savor your rosé or get your hands on a special brut to ask a special something of a special someone, we've got picks for you, too.
Fun fact: Champagne used to be exponentially sweeter, varying in sweetness depending on the country of destination - Russian Champagne, or "Champagne Soviétique," as it was labeled, was traditionally the sweetest. Even into the 20th century, Champagne was most commonly served as a dessert wine.
Here is the best champagne you can buy online:
- Best champagne overall: Louis Roederer Cristal Brut 2008
- Best vintage champagne: Ruinart Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs 2006
- Best non-vintage champagne: Moët & Chandon and Veuve Clicquot
- Best eco-friendly champagne: Bollinger Brut Special Cuvée
- Best rosé champagne: Billecart Salmon Brut Rosé
- Best prosecco: La Marca
- Best cava: Dominio de los Duques
Read on in the slides below to learn more about our top picks.
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