Champagne, Prosecco, Cava, sparkling wine, etc. What’s the difference? What does it mean when someone says “it isn’t Champagne unless it comes from Champagne France”? Well let’s take a moment and drill down on some of these popular terms, and try to turn away from some of the pretentiousness of “well it isn’t actually Champagne…”.

It is true, Champagne only comes from Champagne, just like Chianti only comes from Chianti, Burgundy only comes from Burgundy and Rioja only comes from Rioja. Part of what makes European wines so complicated is that they are often named after a place, not by the grapes that are used or the style of wine that they are. Today though, Champagne has done such a great job of branding itself that it has effectively become to sparkling wine what Kleenex is to facial tissues. We don’t often call out someone for saying Kleenex when they are using Puffs, so let’s not get too stressed when someone using Champagne and sparkling wine interchangeably!

Now there are certainly other sparkling wines that come from specific places, Prosecco is grown only in northeast Italy, Cava comes from a few special locations in Spain, outside of Europe places like South Africa have even sought to protect their bubbly identity with special names, its Cap Classique in South Africa. Further these wines aren’t only special because of where they are made, but how they are made. If you are putting a special name on a bottle, you can bet there are some requirements in the production process to ensure that the wines are living up to the standard that these regions have for their wines.

So does Champagne deserve the brand that it has created? At this point it is a pretty inarguable yes. Champagne consistently is a leader in the industry for quality, make wines that get impressive scores from a variety of reviewers and “average” folks alike. The market has also deemed Champagne the king of bubbles, Champagne starts around $35 a bottle these days, while the sky is the limit on the high end, with a few Champagnes capping $2,000! While we think that you can get a great bottle of sparkling wine from somewhere else in the world for under $20, there’s just something hard to beat about a great bottle of Champagne!

Whether you are needing a bottle of Cava, an American sparkler, a great Prosecco or that show stopper Champagne stop in to Crown and check out our amazing selection of bubbly!