Sparkling Wine

For the 2015 Best of Sonoma Lists we surveyed hundreds of local vintners asking for their inside perspective of the best wines, tasting rooms, and restaurants in Sonoma. Sonoma offers some of the country’s finest sparkling wines—but we wanted to find the best of the best. So, we surveyed over a hundred area vintners for their professional picks on sparkling wines that no self-respecting wine enthusiast should leave Sonoma without tasting.

There's nothing more festive than a glass of Champagne or sparkling wine. We toast the old and new years with glasses of bubbly, send brides and grooms into their new lives with raised glasses and kick off holiday celebrations with that well-known popping cork sound. While Champagne holds pride of place in the lexicon of sparkling wines, there are several affordable alternatives available, including Prosecco from Italy and Cava from Spain. Let's take a closer look at Champagne, Prosecco and Cava.

Champagne is a sparkling wine made in the Champagne (AOC) region of France. Some of the most famous wineries in the world are located there. They deserve their fame for consistently producing some of the most ethereal wines anywhere. These wines can be expensive so it is important to have a strategy in mind when making purchases. To learn the history of Champagne, the region and the developments in Champagne, please see Part One of this series. One issue with buying Champagne is storage. Champagne is delicate and improper storage can easily hurt the wine. When a consumer sees a bottle either in a store or on a restaurant’s list, how do they know what condition the bottle is in. Of course, in a restaurant setting, the patron, if they have enough confidence, can send the bottle back, although that is not always easy to do.

Very few wines are as universally known as Champagne. While a wine lover may certainly know the names of Napa, Bordeaux, Burgundy, or even Chianti, even the most ardent teetotaler surely recognizes the name Champagne. Champagne is a wine that is intertwined with history and at least the last 300 years of civilization.