Since New Year’s Eve is almost upon us all, and I’m celebrating it with my girlfriend and other friends, I’m looking for a moderately priced ($15-20 USD) Champagne/Sparkling wine to get for us.
Problem is, I don’t have the slightest bit of knowledge about that style of wine.
Anyone have any recommendations/warnings/rules of thumb?
It’s only $6-$8 per bottle around here, but Ballatore is a great sparkling wine with general appeal. It is more sweet than dry, but not overly so. I have never met someone who didn’t like it. A real champagne connesuier might turn their nose up at it, but that doesn’t sound like your crowd or you wouldn’t be asking this question. 
Not Korbel. <shudder>
For that price, try a cava - I like *Freixenet Cordon Negro Extra Dry * which is about $7.50. It’s not as “sharp” as a brut. More fruity.
We like the Frexinet, usually about 7 to 9 bucks a pop.
One word: Cava.
Cava is Spanish sparkling wine. It’s usually inexpensive and generally quite good. You’ve probably seen Freixenet (pronounced roughly “fresh net”). Cordon Negro and Carta Nevada are both quite good. Cristalino is another good Cava. I particularly like the pink Blanc de Noirs Cristalino.
Stay away from champagnes that aren’t from France, in general. Note: not sparkling wines that are not from France, but sparkling wines that are called champagne but are not from France. In my experience, the good non-champagne sparkling wines don’t try to fool people by calling themselves champagnes.
If you buy a sparkling wine that is not Champagne, look for the designation “Methode Champenoise” on the label. This means the bubbles were produced by secondary fermentation in the bottle, rather than by the Charmat Bulk Process prior to bottling. While it may not make that much difference in the $8 range, individual bottle fermentation stands on its merits as a more authentic product. You may not be able to afford Dom Perignon, but you can buy an inexpensive wine that is made in the same basic way.
Schramsberg is another good California sparkling wine at the upper end of the price range you quoted.
I like Piper Sonoma. I saw it on sale at Cost Plus last week at something like $10-12. Inexpensive, but not cheap.
I also recommend Ballatore.
Mr. Athena and I are champagne drinkers. That is, we drink champagne a lot - not just on special occasions. I’d say we drink a minimum of 2 bottles a month, and many more around the holidays.
The following sparkling wines/champagnes should be widely available and inexpensive:
By far the best value-priced sparkling wine that’s widely available right now is Domaine Ste Michelle. It comes in several varieties - my favorite is the Cuvee Brut. Around here, it’s regularly priced at about $13/bottle, and I can get it on sale right now for $10/bottle. My sister-in-law in Texas tells me she gets it for $8. This champagne compares favorably with many $15-$20 bottles I’ve had. If you want a no-brainer, good, cheap sparkling wine, Domaine Ste. Michelle is it.
Going up, check out Mirabelle Brut. Around here, it goes for about $15/bottle. It’s a different style than the Ste Michelle - slightly more refined, smaller bubbles, a bit more fruity. This is a great sparkling wine for the price.
Also check out Chandon. At around $18-$22/bottle, it’s a nice crisp wine that almost everyone will like. In the same price range and also very good is Argyle.
Also remember, in champagne, “Extra Dry” is actually a sweeter champagne. Go for Brut if you want dry. From sweetest to dryest, the champagne categories are:
Demi-sec
Dry
Extra Dry
Brut (if you’re not sure what to get, go for a brut)
You also might see Blanc de Blanc and Blanc de Noir - these indicate that the wine is made completely from white grapes, in the case of Blanc de Blanc, or red grapes, in the case of Bland de Noir. It doesn’t necessarily mean anything about their sweetness, but in general a sparkling wine or champagne labelled either of these is dry.
Yup, Piper-Sonoma is another good one. For those of us not in California, it runs more like $18-$23/bottle, and is well worth it.
If you can get Piper Sonoma for $10 a bottle, I’d suggest that you buy a case.
I think Korbel has a slightly better “Natural” (sp?) version out now that’s a cut above their normal stuff. At least that’s what I recall…
If you can get Australian stuff, you’ll likely find that Yellowglen is in your price range, and it’s a very decent drop indeed.
If you have a Beverages and More near you, you can get Piper Sonoma for $9.99 a bottle. I believe they are only in California, but they might ship to at least some other states.
I concur - Schramsberg is always very yummbly, and their newer Mirabelle line is tasty.
Why, I think I’ll go and open a bottle of some bubbly right now!
Here’s a hijack: what percentage of the time do you order champagne in a restaurant, only to find that they roughly slosh it into the glass so that most of the carbonation is lost within 5-10 seconds? I’m to the point these days where I find that I just politely have them leave the bottle, and I say that we’ll pour it ourselves. Knuckleheads. This idea that you pour champagne from 3 feet above the glass and watch it go flat in the glass is something I can’t understand. I see most tough guys in bars gently pour their Bud Lites into a glass with the delicacy of a fine cognac (as it should be). But do it with champagne? No way. Slam it in there!
Wait. I live in the U.P… It’s all clear to me now.
A quick story. Once Ms. Booka and I were in what was basically the nicest bar/restaurant in town. Great views of the harbor and all that. I ordered a bottle of something like a Taittinger, but when it came, it of course wasn’t as cold as I would have like, and they didn’t have any clue that they should have brought a champagne ice bucket with it. I said “Could you bring us a champagne bucket for this puppy?”. Sure, they said, and then I hear this fine example of a Yooper chick call downstairs to some orc, asking “could yous bring me up a bucket o’ ice”. I knew right away what would happen. 5 minutes later some mouthbreather shows up with a drywall bucket - full of ice. Life in da U.P… 
I’m curious, what do you recommend under $50? Don’t worry about wide-spread availability.
Oh, and on a side note to people in California: please don’t torture the rest of us with your low wine prices… our insurance is probably cheaper.
This is absurd advice. California Champagnes (or New York Champagnes, or any other champagnes not from France in the US) are not trying to fool anybody by designating their sparkling wines as champagne. They are excellent values, very drinkable, and pretty consistent year after year.
Some California Champagnes I like in your price range:
Domaine Chandon Brut
Korbel Sec (It’s easy to find in this area-I live about 15 miles from the winery, but it might be harder to find in other areas.)
Gloria Ferrer Sonoma Brut
J Vineyards Brut
Piper-Sonoma Cuvee Brut
The first 2 are a little cheaper than the last three. The second is sweeter than all of the rest. I drink California champagne at least once a month, and those first two are my ‘everyday drinking’ choices. The last three I would consider perfect for NYE. They’re no Dom Perignon, but they’re excellent in their price range.
um… all those you list except Korbel call themselves sparkling wine. Even Korbel calls itself “California Champagne.” I think the point Anne Neville was trying to make is that many low-price icky sparkling wines call themselves Champagne, which is incorrect. Champagne refers only to wines made in the Champagne region of France. It’s as incorrect to call an American wine a Champagne as it would be to call an American wine a Burgundy or a Bordeaux, or to call whisky made in the US a Scotch. It’s not a slam on American sparkling wines; it’s simply incorrect to call American sparkling wine Champagne, and most reputable wine vendors will not try to masquerade as anything but American sparkling wine. And, as you point out, there is no need to; American sparkling wines are quite good.
Well, there was that case of 1990 Pommery Louise we got for $30/bottle… but you can’t get it any more and if you could the normal price was more like $130/bottle.
OK, back to reality. It’s really hard to go wrong in the $30-$50 range. Unlike wines, in most areas you have a limited number of sparkling wines to choose from. You just don’t walk in to many liquor stores and see more than 10 or 20 sparklies in that range, at least not outside California or in really great wine stores in big cities.
Keep in mind, too, that my own selection is VERY limited, living in the middle of nowhere. Given that, here’s what I like:
Duval-Leroy “Paris” bottle. Pretty sure this was a 1991 vintage. You can’t miss it - it’s in a beautifully painted bottle. Around $35 if I recall correctly. Really nice, dry, smooth.
It’s hard to go wrong with any Roederer or Heidsieck in that price range. Look for the French Roederer if you’re looking to spend at the top of the range - not that California Roederer is bad, but if you’re going to spend $50 you might as well try a French.
You see Veuve Cliquot a lot in the $30-$40 range, but IMO it’s a bit overpriced. Don’t get me wrong - it’s a great Champagne and I’ve drank a lot of it. It’s just that it’s become a known name and you can typically get the same quality for $10 less if you try something not so well known.
Anything by Pommery is lovely. Moet and Mumm are both good names to look for as well.
Hell, there’s very few French Champagnes in that range that are outright bad; most of the crappy sparklies are at the low end, and unfortunately I think most people don’t bother to try anything other than the Freixinet or the cheapo Korbels.
Now you all have gotten me WAY excited for New Year’s Eve!