Sparkling Wines

Champagne is champagne and everything else is just pretending, right? You'd be surprised.

First of all, until 1985, a lot more wines were called Champagne. Of course, they were in parts of France that lay outside of Champagne's borders, and so eventually a compromise had to be reached. Crémant exists as a result of this 1985 compromise, specifically three regional Crémants: Crémant de Bourgogne (from Burgundy), Crémant d'Alsace (from the Alsace region) and Crémant de Loire (from Loire). These wines use the same process as champagne, but often use slightly different mixes of grapes than champagne (which can only be made of Pinot Noire, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay). Crémant wines can be as good as, or better than traditional champagnes, and are usually cheaper than a champagne of the same quality.

California Champagne is an appellation that's disappearing by the day. This isn't because they've stopped making Champagne-quality sparking wines in California. Rather, it's because the wines have started getting good enough that the producers would rather put their names front and center rather than hide behind an imitation.

But champagne and its likenesses aren't the only sparkling wines.