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Which Champagne is Right for You?
Choosing the right champagne can be harder than you’d think. There are many choices to make regarding flavor, price, and more.
Add to that the fact that there are more champagne and sparkling wine makers than ever before. Which label is the best? Which is the most affordable? Which brand is a great blend of quality and value?
When you’re choosing a bottle of champagne, use this quick and handy guide to make sure your choice is the right one for you.
What’s the Occasion?
First, consider the occasion for which you’re purchasing the champagne. Is it a formal brunch with colleagues? A simple dessert with friends? The celebration of a wedding, a birth, or New Year’s Eve?
For weddings and other large celebrations where you don’t want guests to become too intoxicated, consider serving a champagne with a relatively low alcohol content (around 8-13%). That way, the guests can participate in multiple toasts without embarrassing consequences. Most champagnes and California sparkling wines fall into this range.
Also consider the number of guests you’ll be serving at the event. A bottle of sweet Asti Spumante would be more than enough to accompany dessert with friends, but larger events will require more champagne – and more money. Don’t blow your budget on premier labels unless you’re certain your guests will know (and care about) the difference.
For example, Veuve Clicquot "La Grande Dame" is an excellent choice for celebrations, but at $40 a bottle, it can get very expensive very quickly. Consider a lower-cost alternative for your large event, like Anderson Valley Roederer and Domaine Chandon at $12 - $18 per bottle.
Which Taste Do You Prefer?
Champagne flavor is rated on a scale of dryness to sweetness. Dry champagnes have had small amounts of sugar added to them during the fermentation process. Sweet champagnes had larger amounts of added sugar, producing a sweeter beverage.
Here is a list of champagne flavors, from the driest to the sweetest:
Extra Brut/Brut Zero/Brut Sauvage (0.6% residual sugar per liter)
Brut (1.5% residual sugar per liter)
Extra Dry/Extra Sec (1.2 - 2% residual sugar per liter)
Sec (1.7 – 3.5% residual sugar per liter)
Demi Sec (3.3 - 5% residual sugar per liter)
Doux (5% or more residual sugar per liter)
Most drinkers prefer something in the middle, tending toward dry. Dry champagnes are also best for cooking, and dry to mildly sweet champagnes can be used to create champagne cocktails. The sweetest champagnes are very sweet, and make good dessert beverages.
Finally, for formal meals, consider the food you will be pairing the champagne with. Champagne goes best with appetizers, cheese, fruit, and dessert. Pair a gentle, slightly sweet champagne with your cheese course, and a full-bodied Brut with savory appetizers. Moscato d’Asti is an excellent choice to accompany brunch or dessert.
How Big is Your Budget?
Champagne is considered a beverage of the elite, and for good reason; though many affordable brands exist today, the drink was popularized by French nobility, and some bottles can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
Budget is a primary consideration for many champagne buyers. Showing up with an expensive bottle in hand speaks well of your knowledge and economic status, but if you go overboard you could risk looking gauche.
Others prefer to save money by providing the best champagne possible within an allotted budget. This is understandable, since most guests will probably not read the label or care how much you spent on the champagne.
Here’s a quick rule for appropriate pricing: For small, formal gatherings, expect to pay $40 – 80 per bottle. For larger celebrations, aim for $20 – 40 per bottle. For casual get-togethers, look for champagnes in the $15 – 20 range.
There are excellent champagnes to fit every budget, so don’t be afraid to ask a professional for guidance when choosing yours.
Finding Your Personal Champagne Preference
The only way to find out which champagne you prefer is to sample many brands, or marques. Start with a Brut flavor and then go drier or sweeter according to your taste preference. The most famous, reliable marques include Bollinger, Krug, Veuve, Ruinart, Moet et Chandon, Mumm, Perrier, Heidsieck, and Cliquot-Ponsardin.
Champagne tastes best when it is freshly opened, so try to purchase only as much champagne as you will drink at one sitting. Invite some close friends to partake with you over dinner, or set up a champagne tasting party to try several brands over the course of an evening. You will soon find a brand and flavor you enjoy most.
Choosing a champagne is like choosing a new car. You must consider its purpose, its price tag, and your personal taste before committing to a purchase. Hopefully, this buyer’s guide has answered some of the questions you had about choosing the perfect bottle of champagne.
