New Year's Eve Champagne

Champagne - It's not just for celebrations

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Champagne and New Year's Eve are naturals in most people's minds, including mine! Bringing in the New Year with a celebratory toast of bubbly is a great tradition, but unless you drink it regularly it's hard to know what to drink!

Now we encourage regular consumption of Champagne here at The Poodle and will point out that it is suitable anytime a glass of wine is, although that won't help you if you quickly need a bottle or two for the festivities! Also remember that true Champagne comes from France, period. Just like Maine lobster only comes from Maine. It may or may not matter whether it is Champagne or another sparkling wine you are drinking. Champagne is more expensive, but there are certainly plenty of other sparkling wines that rock.

We will give some specific recommendations, but first there are three critical things to consider that will help you easily make a great choice.

1) What is everyone eating and drinking before the midnight toast? If people are swilling beer, or Martinis, or Margaritas, and gobbling food of every description, their palate's will be on near overload, maybe even "polluted." A great Champagne's flavors and nuances will likely go unnoticed and a very good but not exceptional bottle is usually more than fine.

If it's a wild party, no one may even remember the toast!

2) Who is there and do they even like or drink wine of any type? If it's my sister and brother in law, or neighbors, or parents, well, they don't drink wine of any sort regularly and anything decent will do. If it's my wine drinking friends Pierre, Lola, The Shrink, or The Spaniard I'm going to open something much better and they will appreciate it. Even if it's my beer slugging, Marlboro smoking friend Large John I'll open something damn good because he has a great palate.

You also may be trying to impress someone, so a big name brand may be appropriate. No further comment here.

3) Budget matters, unfortunately. I'd be drinking Krug Clos de Mesnil a lot if it didn't, but I rarely can afford spending multiple hundreds of dollars on a bottle!

The rule is don't buy the cheapest of any type of sparkling wine unless you know it or it's recommended, and don't spend more than you can afford! There are many choices for less than $20 that are very nice.

Now if their is a wine shop or a liquor store with knowledgeable employees, absolutely take their advice! I certainly do! Do not expect to find advice everywhere wine is available, for example at a supermarket.

On the low end, but perfectly acceptable, Italian Prosecco and Spanish Cava fit the bill nicely (don't buy the cheapest!). They are widely available and all pretty good! That said, my choices for the under $20 category are Scharffenberger Brut from California or Saint-Hilaire Blanquette de Limoux from France. Neither are "Champagne," but both are tasty, easy to find, and they deliver!

Around $50, maybe a bit more depending on where you live, there are a great many choices. For a more fruity style, Roederer Estate L'Ermitage from California fits the bill nicely.

At the around $50 price mark however, my choice would be a good Non Vintage (NV) Champagne. Wine geeks may gawk, but Moet and Chandon White Star and Brut Imperial are widely available and very good. If your wine merchant steers you to another choice, seriously consider their input. They know what's available, and I usually go for a smaller producer at this price mark but I'm not going to give you a list of 50 just in case one is available!

At a hundred plus dollars, unless you are a wine geek, or even if you are a wine geek, we are in the Vintage Champagne category. I love Dom Perignon and Cristal. Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame and Bollinger La Grande Annee are other fantastic choices.

And for much more information, peruse the site, sign up for the free newsletter, and start drinking bubbly more regularly!

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