The Best Champagnes, According To Experts
If you want to pop open the real deal on NYE, these are the brands to buy.
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There are many varieties of sparkling wine from all over the world, but Champagne is far and away considered to be the gold standard. And yes, the wine snobs are correct: it's only Champagne if it comes from the Champagne region of France. Located about 90 minutes east of Paris, Champagne is renowned for this long-standing history of winemaking.
Compared to other sparkling wines like Spanish cava and Italian prosecco, Champagne's luxurious reputation means you're generally going to fork over more money for it. And major Champagne houses, like Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, and Dom Pérignon, can sell bottles for hundreds of dollars. But those fancy brands aren't the only producers in the region.
Since around the mid 1980s, smaller independent vineyards have revolutionized Champagne. Larger corporate producers typically source their grapes from different growers all over the region to make consistent blends. Some of the most exciting bottles on the market, however, are considered grower Champagnes, where small farmers produce and sell their own wine using their own grapes. The flavor and quality of these wines change every year based on the weather. While that may make the Champagne less reliable, it also allows for the personalities and quirks of the grapes to shine through.
World-famous sommelier Aldo Sohm compares grower Champagnes to farmers' market apples: "It might have a brown spot and not be presented in a polished pyramid," he writes in his book Wine Simple, "but the flavor is incredible, and I know it wasn't treated with a bunch of chemicals, harvested while green, coated with wax, and shipped here from South America. Just saying!"
Another perk? Since grower Champagnes don't have decades of clout behind them, you can typically buy a bottle for a lot less than you would spend on a more established brand. We consulted sommeliers, importers, and enthusiasts for their top Champagne picks, both from smaller growers and larger Champagne houses. So if you're planning on treating yourself to Champagne to ring in 2024, check out these expert-approved recommendations:
Expertise: TikTok Trends, Drinks, Pop Culture
Education: B.A. in Journalism and B.S. in Communications from NYU, Culinary Arts degree from The Institute of Culinary Education
About Me: As an associate editor at Delish, Gabby works on everything from features to recipes to content on our social media channels. Before joining the team, she wrote for StarChefs Rising Stars Magazine, Mashed, and Food52. When she’s not developing cocktail recipes, she’s making cocktail-inspired dishes like Dirty Martini Pasta and Aperol Spritz Trifle. Her features cover online trends like the Millennial Shopping Cart, rank everything from hard seltzers to frozen French fries, and answer some of your most pressing food safety questions. You can also find her posting content on Delish’s TikTok, including her three-part series about cooking like influencer Nara Smith that garnered over 3M combined views. She loves eating spicy food, collecting cookbooks, and adding a mountain of Parmesan to any dish she can.
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