Champagnes You Can Ring In A Great 2023 On New Year's Eve With

While gains and losses in the stock market may come and go, there is one thing that remains constant: Champagne.

Kicking off a bright shiny new year with Champagne is a tradition that won't ever go sour. So, before finding out what you should be drinking, if you are drinking, on the eve of Dec. 31 — and other nights, because celebrations are eternal — a brief background about champagne.

Popping The Cork: It was a dark and starry night … in 1698 and Benedictine monk Dom Pérignon was at the abbey near Reims, France, where he discovered méthode champenoise, the second fermentation in the bottle during which the bubbles are created.

Now, there is some dispute that Pérignon invented Champagne, with assertions of it existing before then; the English have even tried to lay claim to its birth.  Let’s just say Dom Pérignon was the “father” of this bubbly brew.

Champagne can only be called that if it is made in the Champagne region, located in northeast France, where Pérignon created it.

Anything outside the borders of Champagne is called sparkling wine and has different names, including crémant (France), cava (Spain), prosecco (Italy) and sekt (Germany).

To find out what’s a great bubbly, I turned to the experts at Wine Spectator and the Robb Report to see what they had to say. Note that prices listed can vary. 

Bubble's Up!: At Wine Spectator, writer Tim Fish focused his tasting notes on sparkling wines produced in the U.S.

He reviewed 100 sparkling wines, and here are his top 5:
1. Iron Horse Brut Green Vally of Russian River Valley LD 2013, $125
2. Domaine Carneros Blanc de Blancs Carneros Le Rêve 2014, $120


3. Iron Horse Wedding Cuvée Green Vally of Russian River Valley 2018, $56

4. Roederer Estate Brut Anderson Valley L’Ermitage 2015, $68
5. Roederer Estate Anderson L’Ermitages, 2013, $100

Other familiar names on the list are Schramsberg, Mumm Napa, J and Domaine Chandon.

The Robb Report writers Mike DeSimone and Jeff Jenssen created a list of “The 9 Best Champagnes to Pop at Your New Year’s Eve Celebration,” which was a mix of “high,” Krug Rosé Champagne Brut 26th Edition (with gift box) at $399.97 on wine.com and “low,” Drappier Blanc de Blancs Brut Champagne NV at $67.50 on Vivino. 



No worries, Dom Pérignon’s namesake champagne made the cut: the vintage 2012 is available at $264.99 on Vivino.

Dom Pérignon, as is the Krug, are owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA LVMUY.

Size Matters: If some of the names of the bottle sizes below sound familiar, you have been reading a Bible — the Old Testament, that is.

The standard bottle of champagne holds 75 centiliters (six glasses), and while there are smaller bottles, for champagne drinkers, one glass just won’t do. (The bottles below mean standard bottle size.)

• Magnum: 1.5 liters, or 2 bottles
• Jeroboam: 3 liters or 4 bottles
• Methuselah: 6 liters or 8 bottles
• Salmanazar: 9 liters or 12 bottles
• Balthazar: 12 liters, or 16 bottles
• Nebuchadnezzar: 15 liters, or 20 bottles
• Solomon: 18 liters, or 24 bottles
• Sovereign: 25 liters, or 35 bottles
• Goliath (Primat): 27 liters, or 25 bottles
• Melchizedek: 30 liters, or 40 bottles (The largest size.)

After the year the stock market had, most of us will need at least a Salmanazar. 

Photo: Shebeko via Shutterstock.