Champagne Reviews

The best reviews of Champagne and sparkling wines come from Wine Spectator, Wine Advocate and the wine experts at The New York Times. These publications test the largest number of Champagnes (which come from a specific region in France) and sparkling wines (from everywhere else) and provide the most detailed tasting notes. Bruce Sanderson, Wine Spectator's Champagne specialist, tastes hundreds of wines annually and scores them without knowing the producer or price. Veteran critic Robert Parker, the founder of Wine Advocate, accepts no advertising or sponsors and tastes the majority of the wines the publication reviews himself. The New York Times uses a four-star scale and employs a panel consisting of its wine critic, Eric Asimov, a writer or two from the Dining section and one or more wine experts. They taste 25 wines and select the ten best. The Times panel includes detailed tasting notes and helpful food pairings, but we wish that they would name the wines that didn't make the grade.

We also read very good Champagne and sparkling wine reviews at Slate.com and Wine Review Online, although it's unclear whether the reviewers tasted the wines blind. Both Mike Steinberger (of Slate) and Ed McCarthy (of Wine Review Online) offer no-nonsense buying advice. We particularly appreciate McCarthy's buyer-friendly approach: he categorizes his Champagne picks by style and by occasion. If you have time to spare, Gary Vaynerchuk's Wine Library video blog is both irreverent and instructive, letting you see exactly how critics taste wine. Vaynerchuk's notes are descriptive, and interspersed with comments drawn from pop culture. Champagne tests aren't conducted blind, but Vaynerchuk is clearly skeptical of hotly marketed Champagnes.

Consumer Reports enlisted two experts whose credentials are not revealed to blind-taste 23 Champagnes and sparkling wines made in the same style. Bottles range in price from $5 to $42. Although this is the largest comparative review we found, Consumer Reports neglects some of the best-known names in Champagne including Krug, Roederer and Dom Pérignon. Citing inconsistent quality, slight "off" notes or lack of intensity, testers found no "excellent" bottles. Curiously, many of the "good" wines are described as lacking Champagne's characteristic yeasty aroma, and although Consumer Reports downgrades wine for having fruity flavors it calls "atypical of Champagne," leading wine critics have detected such fruit flavors as cranberry, pineapple and kiwi in top Champagnes.

Another aggressively marketed wine, Moët & Chandon White Star (*est. $40), is said to be cloying and flaccid in the Slate.com review: "This oft-derided wine deserves the abuse," writes Steinberger. Interestingly, White Star has not been reviewed by any of the major wine publications.

Because individual tastes clearly vary with all kinds of food and drink, we looked for a consensus of opinion when it came to choosing wines for inclusion in ConsumerSearch Fast Answers. While not every Champagne or sparkling wine can please everybody, several bottles rose to the top in multiple reviews and in various price ranges. The Champagnes and sparkling wines included in ConsumerSearch Fast Answers are repeat favorites in reviews and merit first consideration. Because there are thousands of sparkling wines on the market, we've limited our report for now to true French Champagne and domestic sparkling wine.  ... Continued

Our Consensus Report shows how many times products are top-ranked by reviewers included in our
All The Reviews Reviewed chart.