Today we're going over Budget Champagne Alternatives - Cheap Sparkling Wines That Tastes Like Champagne. We're continuing Champagne Basics Part 2 but we're going to learn about budget sparkling wines that are made the Champagne Method (or Traditional Method).
My favorite budget champagne alternatives are Crémants and Cavas. They are both very tasty and made similar to Champagne but at a fraction of the cost.
If you want to impress someone on a budget and don't want to spend $60+ on a bottle of Champagne, you can buy a Californian Schramsberg $30.
We will also learn how to open a bottle of Champagne or any sparkling wine and go over helpful tips and tricks on the best way to open a bottle of sparkling wine .
"Lolo Popo (extended) by Mona Wonderlick / monawonderlick Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/2QciilS
Hi guys.
How are you?
Good.
What are we in the market for today?
We just got engaged last week.
Whoa, congratulations.
Thank you.
We were in Hawaii.
It was wonderful.
So we're just looking to celebrate with something fancy, fun, something that's us but not overpriced
necessarily.
Champagne or sparkling?
We're not really sure of the...
So I was going to ask, do you want to do a true champagne?
Do you want to tell us a little bit about true champagne versus untrue champagne?
So a lot of times people will ask for champagne but they just mean anything sparkling.
So I've got some really awesome champagnes that are from Champagne.
Champagne is made in a very specific way and made in a very specific place.
So the name is Champagne and the style is known kind of around the world as like method
champagnois.
So there are other wines from other parts of the world made in that same method champagnois.
They just don't happen to be from that area.
Right.
So...
That's sparkling wine.
Essentially you can get champagne quality and champagne style wines without having to
sometimes pay those extra champagne prices.
So this is really cool.
This is made by this really badass female winemaker in Burgundy.
So you're actually really close to Champagne in France.
Got it.
And it's made from a lot of the same grapes that they use in Champagne to make sparkling
wine.
Really delicious, really awesome, very Champagne in style and under $30.
So if you guys really wanted to ball on the budget, this is the way to go.
And then you can go treat yourself to a nice dinner as well.
So there you go.
Yeah.
This is a vintage sparkling wine from Germany.
So this is vintage 1996.
So you've got over 22 years of age on this bottle right now.
Wow.
And it's only $70.
It's a little bit funkier.
Okay.
It's going to get like really bready, really yeasty, kind of earthy.
So it's going to take that freshness of Champagne but give it a little bit of a kind of like
more savory, funky edge.
Do all of them have like a similar level of carbonation?
Yeah.
Okay.
Because they're made in that same method with two fermentations, it's going to have a very
similar feel as far as bubbles go.
But texture, it depends on how it's made.
And you should drink the whole thing at once so the fizziness stays and it doesn't go flat?
Depends on the wine.
Sometimes it can hold overnight.
Sometimes it'll go flat pretty quickly.
So you guys drink a fair amount of sparkling wine?
Sounds like you like it.
Yeah.
So you've had really good Champagne a bunch of times.
I would try something new.
It's always my, you know, you guys are starting a new chapter of your life.
Yeah.
Why not start it with something different?
Awesome.
Cheers.
That sounds great.
Thank you.
