Toast the Season with the Best Champagne Bubblies you will like.
The holidays are high time for raising a glass of Champagne … and
often. From office parties and family get-togethers to ringing in the
new year with your best girlfriends, the champs runneth over.
But, all
that toasting can get expensive.
“Champagne is like the perfect apartment in the West Village in
Manhattan, the Gold Coast in Chicago, or the Pacific Heights in San
Francisco,” says Belinda Chang, James Beard Award-winning Wine Director
of Maple & Ash
in Chicago. “Because Champagne can only be made in the Champagne region
of France and the real estate there is truly blue chip, the resulting
delicious wines ain’t cheap!”
But if Champagne stands as an integral part of your holiday lifestyle
(and it should!) there are plenty of options made in other parts of the
world.
“These wineries often use the same grapes and many use the same
methode champenoise and so the results make it possible for us all to
have a full wardrobe of sparkling wine options,” says Chang.
Keep reading for her favorite five bubblies for $25 or less to pop bottles all season long.
1.
Szigeti Gruner Veltliner Sekt
"Edgy and awesome things can happen when two brothers in
Austria decide to buck centuries of tradition and make the workhorse
grape of their country into a sparkling wine! Buying this one will freak
out all of your friends until they have the first sip—and then you will
establish that you are the biggest, most badass wine geek of your
posse."
"The Davies family has been stewarding this beautiful
winery in California for two generations and their methode champenoise
is my daily quaff. California sunshine in every glass along with the
toasty flavors of a true methode champenoise."
"Raventos Cava always hits the spot for me! Drinking
Spanish Cava always transports me to the sultry streets of Barcelona and
this dry, crisp sparkling wine will transport you as well."
"You can find crazy little indie producers like Illinois
Sparkling Wine Co. all over wine-dom and I love their spunky wines made
from grapes grown in Illinois and put through the “back breaking”
traditional method."
"This Sonoma classic is served for foreign dignitaries
and will also suit an evening with friends. This one is built to age and
a 5+ year old bottle will have lovely notes of brioche and brown
spices, and the lovely aromas and flavors that can only be found in a
great vintage sparkling wine."
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