The best champagne and sparkling wine you can buy online

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Don't get intimidated by all that elegant French on champagne bottles. Remember: It's just wine, and it's meant for drinking.
We've researched and tested dozens of champagnes and sparkling wines to find the best ones you can buy online, and Louis Roederer Cristal Brut 2008 is our favorite.

Does champagne have to be vintage and aged for years and years to be enjoyed? Of course not. It's all about where and with whom you pop it. And there are ways to doctor up even the lowliest of sparkling wines. Cut them with a splash of OJ or toss in a sugar cube, and a glass or bottle of cruddy new world sparkling wine will go down like candy.

But, of course, there are bottles of champagne worth cherishing, and if you're going to go ahead and dish out, you want to make sure you're not getting duped, right? I do, at least, which is why I got in touch with a few sommeliers and wine importers to make sense of it all and to find the best champagne and sparkling wine you can get at a variety of price points.

First things first: It's widely believed that Dom Pérignon discovered Champagne in 1693, but bottle fermentation has been traced back to at least 1531 in Limoux, France. Also, Champagne originates from Champagne, France, and particularly five districts: Aube, Côte des Blancs, Côte de Sézanne, Montagne de Reims, and Vallée de la Marne.

These districts are about 90 miles northeast of Paris, and they're known for exceptionally sweet grapes, hence the widely beloved Champagne grape Cognac. This is why Californian "Champagne," despite what the Korbel might say, isn't Champagne at all, and anything available for anywhere south of about $30 might as well not be, either.

Once you get into a higher price range, you enter a bit of a gray, and highly subjective area where it comes down to minute personal preference if anything at all.

Ashleigh Barrowman, a France-based sommelier put it best: "Champagne is the classic example of perfect competition. It's all the same stuff, really."

This is especially true of non-vintage champagnes, Pierre Haury of Luneau USA Inc. Wine Imports further explained to me: "If you can’t afford champagne but you want a quality sparkling wine from France, Crémant, from outside Champagne (from Loire, best is Bourgogne) is better at [about] $18 than bad champagne at $25. It's drier than Prosecco, and a little more expensive, but much, much better.”

Yes, sparkling wines from outside the region, confusingly enough, are also sometimes called "Champagne" thanks to a loophole, though that's a technicality mostly decided by customs and trade agreements, and only certain brands outside of Champagne are allowed to label their wine as "Champagne" — don't be fooled by Californian sparkling wine). True champagne is a delicate matter, and if you're not willing or able to dish out for it, Italian Prosecco and Spanish Cava more than suffice and often pair better with a wider array of foods.

If you do want to sip and savor your rosé or get your hands on a special brut to ask a special something of a special someone, we've got picks for you, too.

Fun fact: Champagne used to be exponentially sweeter, varying in sweetness depending on the country of destination — Russian Champagne, or "Champagne Soviétique," as it was labeled, was traditionally the sweetest. Even into the 20th century, Champagne was most commonly served as a dessert wine.

Here is the best champagne you can buy online:

Best champagne overall: Louis Roederer Cristal Brut 2008
Best vintage champagne: Ruinart Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs 2006
Best non-vintage champagne: Moët & Chandon and Veuve Clicquot
Best eco-friendly champagne: Bollinger Brut Special Cuvée
Best rosé champagne: Billecart Salmon Brut Rosé
Best prosecco: La Marca
Best cava: Dominio de los Duques

Read on in the slides below to learn more about our top picks.

The best champagne overall

Wine.com

Why you'll love it: Louis Roederer Cristal Brute 2008 has been aged for 10 years and might be the champagne house's best yet, according to many critics and sommeliers.

There's a lot of hype around Cristal champagne, thanks in no small part to Jay-Z and his affinity for Armand de Brignac (which he now owns). More than one sommelier expressed sentiments of it being overpriced, but it's still a lovely wine produced by several of the oldest and most revered Champagne houses.

Cristal is the flagship cuvée of Louis Roederer champagne house, one of the more prized and environmentally responsible in the region.

First made in 1876 for Russian Czar Alexander II, the bottle was — and still is — uniquely made with a flat bottom and no punt because the fearful leader was worried someone would plant an explosive in one and blow him to kingdom come. If that doesn't lend it to gangsta rap, it's hard to say what would.

There's also no real consensus as to why champagne and wine bottles even have a punt in the first place, and it may just be a remnant from when bottles were hand-blown.

But to get to the wine, Roederer's Cristal 2008 was bottle-aged for eight years and then left to rest for eight months or more, and this is Roederer's first 10-year-aged Cristal. It's a 60%/40% blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Roederer's own vineyards, which are mostly biodynamic, lending a powerful palate with hints of citrus and stone fruit on the nose.

This might otherwise be an offensively bold wine, but the exceptionally long aging process gave it time to mellow.

Pros: Lofty critical acclaim, heavily aged, balanced, historic

Cons: Probably best saved for a few years, a lot of critics say to wait until at least 2020, if not 2025

Buy Louis Roederer Cristal Brute 2008 from Wine.com for $259.97

Shop Roederer on Wine.com

The best vintage champagne

Wine.com

Why you'll love it: Ruinart Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs 2006 makes our favorite vintage champagne with its fresh, fruity taste.

If you're going to dish out the better part of a Benjamin for a bottle of bubbly, apart from dazzling your taste buds, it'd better come with a story. For starters, Ruinart is the oldest champagne house in Champagne, and thereby the world.

Founded in 1729, the Ruinart family could be credited with the first true champagne, too. But it's had its ups and downs: At the end of World War II, the company was down to some 800 cases and a mere 17 hectares.

Needless to say, the family has bounced back, and then some. It's difficult to discuss champagne at any length without mentioning Ruinart, which apart from being the oldest, is lauded for the fresh and fruity aromatics of the Chardonnay grapes they use.

Pros: History as the oldest champagne house in the world, fresh, fruity, somewhat eco-friendly

Cons: Not cheap

Buy Ruinart Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs 2006 from Wine.com for $179.97

Shop Ruinart champagne on Wine.com

The best non-vintage champagne

Wine.com

Why you'll love it: Moët & Chandon's standard bottle of Imperial brut isn't cheap by any means, but it's $10 cheaper than our other non-vintage pick, Veuve Clicquot, and if it's within your budget, you can't go wrong.

Moët & Chandon is another classic we all know and love, and its wines range from remarkably reasonable to unimaginably unaffordable. In short? The house puts out some 28 million bottles a year, and there's something for all.

Moët produces bottles ranging from about $45 up to, well, the sky's the limit. I might add that the company is the producer of the illustrious Dom Pérignon, which can run you hundreds.

Now, Moët & Chandon owns Veuve Clicquot, and like Pierre Haury of Luneau USA told me, it's more or less all the same stuff. He finds Veuve to be fruitier and more effervescent, which might please some palates more than others.

There may be no more subjective substance on Earth than champagne. In short, to each their own, and at this price range, you can't go wrong with either.

Pros: Reliable consistency, moderately affordable, both popular names most will know and appreciate

Cons: Not the most sustainable, some might consider Moët & Chandon and Veuve Clicquot overpriced

from Business Insider https://read.bi/2sDOAqF

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The best champagne and sparkling wine you can buy online

Here is the best champagne you can buy online: