How to Find the Best Champagne for You

Lively, pure, energetic, mineral Champagnes like the Brut Nature ($90).

Transatlantic Bubbles, Woodbridge, Conn.

Pinpoint biodynamic blanc de blancs from the Côtes des Blancs, always full of verve and energy, including the nonvintage Longitude ($60) and the vintage Terre de Vertus ($85).

Polaner Selections, Mount Kisco, N.Y.

Exquisite blanc de blancs, always impeccably balanced and delicious from the nonvintage Cuvée de Réserve ($65) to the single-vineyard Les Chétillons ($160).

Skurnik Wines

These focused, precise, gorgeous wines from the Aube region used to be bottled under the name of the vigneron, Cédric Bouchard. He makes cuvées of chardonnay and of pinot blanc, but most are pinot noir, starting with the Val Vilaine blanc de noirs ($85).

Polaner Selections

Rich, intense wines with razor-sharp focus, including Les Maillons, a single-vineyard blanc de noirs ($120) and Les Roises, a single-vineyard blanc de blancs ($170).

Louis/Dressner Selections, New York

Champagne is ordinarily a blend of some combination of three grapes. Two, pinot noir and pinot meunier, are black grapes, ordinarily used to make red wines. One, chardonnay, is a white grape for white wine. A blanc de blancs, literally white from whites, is made solely from chardonnay and tends to have great elegance and finesse.

“White from blacks” is a Champagne made only of black grapes, often but not always just pinot noir. It’s more robust than blanc de blancs and much rarer.

source: nytimes.com