How to Create Champagne Gift Baskets from Scratch

Buying Wine, Champagne, France, Gifts, Holiday

For the wine enthusiasts in your life who seem to have everything, the most memorable gift is one you can make yourself. Rather than buying them yet another waiter’s corkscrew or monogrammed glass, you can give a curated Champagne gift basket unlike any they’ve seen before. Even if the person on your gift list has a fully-stocked cellar, a carefully-selected basket of fine Champagne and accessories will make their holiday season unforgettable. These baskets also appeal to casual wine drinkers, so you can make one for nearly anyone on your gift list this year.

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Champagne house styles vary widely.

The Ultimate Guide to Champagne House Styles

Champagne, Collecting, Enjoying Wine, France, Investing, Wine Regions

Champagne is home to more than 100 different houses, and each one has its own distinctive style. From Bollinger’s biscuity, full-bodied profile to Gimonnet’s delicate apple flavors, Champagne house styles are incredibly diverse. With so many to choose from, it can be difficult for even experienced collectors to find producers that make wine in the style they most enjoy. Whether you’re starting your collection of top-quality Champagne from scratch or you’re an experienced collector who wants to try new producers, learning about individual Champagne house styles can help you invest in wines that will suit your palate.

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Bollinger or Taittinger champagne? We compare the two.

Taittinger or Bollinger: Which Is the Better Investment?

Champagne, Collecting, France, Producers, Producers and Wineries

If you’re looking to expand your Champagne collection, investing in wines from either Taittinger or Bollinger is a wise decision. But how do these producers compare? Which estate is the better investment? While Taittinger is elegant and dances on the palate, Bollinger tends to be richer and more powerful. Because they both produce consistently top-quality wine, your preference for either Taittinger or Bollinger will come down to personal taste, vintage, label quality, and how long you plan on storing your bottles. Weighing all of these factors will help you find the wine that speaks most strongly to you.

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Festive flutes of champagne for a New Year's Eve celebration

Choosing the Best Champagne for New Year’s Eve

Champagne, Enjoying Wine, Parties, Serving

Champagne and New Year’s Eve go together like bread and butter⁠. No New Year’s celebration feels quite right without a flute of bubbly to toast with when midnight strikes… The best Champagne for New Year’s Eve will make even the most casual party feel like an iconic, once-in-a-lifetime event, and it’s a great opportunity to uncork your true showstopper bottles. In this guide, you’ll find a curated list of top-tier Champagne to buy this holiday season. 

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Champagne Holiday Gifts are a great festive choice

The Best Champagne Holiday Gifts for Every Person on Your List

Champagne, Holiday

Every year during the first week of December, I buy my best friend a bottle of Taittinger non-vintage Champagne, and we share it over home-baked Christmas desserts. One year, I decided to surprise her with a vintage bottle of Pol Roger instead. After her first sip of the new bottle, to my surprise, she said, “This is really nice, but I think I like the Taittinger better.” She explained that even though the Pol Roger was a fine vintage Champagne that was technically higher quality than the Taittinger, the non-vintage wine had become a tradition for us. The taste of it signaled the start of the Christmas season for her.

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cellaring champagne

A Guide to Aging Champagne: Sommelier Cara Patricia Higgins on Why It’s Worth Cellaring Champagne

Champagne, Collecting, Interview, Storing Wine

FEATURED WINES: -Bollinger RD -Krug Collection -Dom Perignon P2 -Veuve Clicquot Rosé -Salon We do a lot of things with Champagne. We celebrate holidays and weddings with it, we kick off an elaborate meal with glass of racy Blanc de Blancs, and we shoot it out of Champagne guns off yachts in St. Barts (not…

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buying the best champagne

When It Comes to Buying the Best Champagne, Bigger Bubbles Might Be Better After All

Buying Wine, Champagne, Collecting, France, Investing

My wine-loving uncle always told me that big Champagne bubbles were a bad sign. He’d say, “You might as well drink a bottle of cheap club soda.” However, researchers are now finding that when it comes to buying the best Champagne, bigger bubbles could be an important factor to consider. Physicist Gerard Liger-Belair recently discovered…

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easy Wine and Food Pairing

Looking for a Quick and Easy Wine and Food Pairing? Champagne Should Be Your Default Choice

Champagne, Enjoying Wine, Tasting

Whenever I’ve entered sommelier food pairing competitions, there’s usually one rule: no Champagne. No matter how much you might want to pair that fresh, herb-crusted rack of lamb with a dry, summery Krug rosé, you’re forced to pick a red wine instead. That’s because Champagne is a no-brainer wine for a food pairing; it’s easy…

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champagne vs sparkling wine

Champagne vs Sparkling Wine: While Sparkling Wine Is Winning the Popularity Contest, Champagne Will Outlast Trends

Buying Wine, Champagne, Collecting, Investing

  Champagne has been hailed as the king of wine for centuries, but over the past 10 years, it is slowly being replaced in popularity by sparkling wine from other regions. Sparkling wine sales in other countries have increased by 40 percent, selling about 2.3 billion bottles globally every year, compared to Champagne’s 3 million…

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