Champagne Alternatives, Save Money and Have Fun!

If you know me, you know that bubbles are my favorite genre of wine, and that champagne is a big part of that! I do love my champagne! And with new years celebrations right around the corner I’m thinking about bubbles more and more! Weee! But did you know that there are so so so many more types of bubbles to love?! There are bubbles with easier price points that taste similar to champagne if that’s what you’re after. But there are also amazing bubbles with completely different flavors that I encourage you to explore!

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The Executive Summary (aka: tl;dr)

Gearing up for the holidays and the new year, here are some wonderful sparkling wines to think about!

Champagne if you can spring the full $50+! Find some bubbles on my site at 20% off (with code WINE20) before the champagne shortage hits!
Opt for some Spanish Cava or California Sparkling if you like the yeasty flavors of champagne but only want to spend $20.
Try some Prosecco if you don’t like the yeasty/bready champagne flavors and want all fruit! Only $15.
Be a trend setter and serve an adventurous PetNat (like this PetNat of Sauvignon Blanc) if you want something delightful, historic, low intervention and definitely different! Pricing $20-40.
If sweet wines are your thing, then you must try sparkling Moscato d’Asti or Brachetto d'Acqui for only $10. I can usually find these at our local Costco or Total Wine.

Read on to learn more about each of these sparkling wine types...

How Bubbles Form

First, it’s worth understanding how a wine becomes a “sparkling wine”. Bubbles in wine are nothing more than trapped CO2 gasses escaping from a wine. And CO2 is a byproduct of alcoholic fermentation. So it’s a rather natural phenomenon.

During still wine production, the fermentation process will happen in an open-top vessel to allow the CO2 to escape. Picture if you will a bubbling mass of grapes: the yeast eating the grape sugars and producing alcohol and CO2 gasses in return.

fermentation bubbles

Photo cred: Wikipedia

If you want that wine to be bubbly though, you have to find a way to trap those gasses. Mwahahaha! Enter the bubble trapping methods…

Bubble Trapping Methods

There are several different ways of making and capturing those bubbles (traditional method, tank, rural, transfer, asti and carbonation) depending on the flavor profile the winer maker is going for. Let’s start with the one they use in Champagne, the one you’re more likely to be familiar with: the Traditional Method.

Traditional method

The traditional method of sparkling wine production begins with a still dry wine in a bottle, to which sugar and yeast are added. This kicks off a secondary

fermentation in the bottle. The resulting bubbles are captured and the wine is allowed to age for a few months to take on some yeasty flavors. When this method is used in the Champagne region of France, the result is called "Champagne". When the same method is used in other parts of France, it’s referred to as Cremant. When in Spain, it’s called Cava. Cap Classique is traditional method wine from South Africa and most California Sparkling wine is made using the traditional method.

So, if you’re looking for champagne-like flavors without the champagne price tag (usually starts at $50) look to Cava, California Sparkling, Cap Classique or Cremant.

Tank/Charmat method

The tank method also relies on a secondary fermentation, but as the name suggests, that secondary fermentation takes place in a large tank. This results in huge economies of scale and better price points. This method also avoids the yeasty flavors associated with champagne and the traditional by removing the yeast immediately after fermentation has completed. This results in much fresher and fruitier flavors.

If you’re looking for something brighter and more fruity than Champagne with an easier price point, Italian Prosecco (or Italian Lambrusco or German Sekt) is for you!

Photo cred: La Marca

Asti method

Think if traditional and tank method had a baby. Asti method is a tank method but relies on only the first fermentation. The wine is fermented in a tank but fermentation is paused and bottled. Yeast is filtered out to retain bright fruity characteristics, higher residual sugars and low alcohol. Moscato d’Asti and Brachetto d'Acqui are two delightful examples of this sweet slightly sparkling wine. Alcohol is usually quite low (5-8%) due to fermentation being halted with removal of yeast. I love this stuff! Worth a try if other sparkling wines are not your thing. But even if they are... So delish!

Pictorial summary of the above methods

Thanks to Kendeigh Worden @thegrapegrind Certified Sommelier and Certified Specialist of Wine, Owner thegrapegrind.com

But wait, there are a few more ways to make bubbles...

Rural/Ancestral method

This is the OG method of making sparkling wine. I hope you get a chance to attend one of my “Bubbles and Brie” classes to learn more about the history of champagne but if not, you’re just taking my word for it! The Rural method was how bubbles in wine first came about… accidentally! 100. years before the Champagne region really caught on!

If you were to try and make still wine, but pause the fermentation by putting the yeast to sleep with cold temperatures and then bottle the wine, the fermentation process would resume upon optimal temps once again. So imagine: you bottle some sleepy but living yeast in a solution with some remaining sugar. The fermentation will resume in that bottle and the awoken yeast will eat the remaining sugar and produce CO2 gasses that will be trapped in that bottle along with some yeasty sediment.

Photo cred: Mercury News

Et Voila: PetNat, short for the French expression Pétillant-Naturel meaning “naturally sparkling”.

Transfer method

This method is used for odd-sized bottles (magnums, splits, etc) of traditional method sparkling wines. It refers to wines made in the traditional method, undergoing their 2nd fermentation in a 750ml bottle but then being transferred to the consumer-available size.

Carbonation Soda method

I almost don’t want to discuss this method as it’s not very highly regarded in the industry. This involves the infusion of CO2 gasses similar to soda. It can produce an enjoyable sparkling wine but doesn’t have much street cred in the industry.

In Summary

Now that you've read all about sparkling wine and alternatives to Champagne, what will you try next? As a summary, here are your options and their price points.

Champagne if you can spring the full $50+! Find some bubbles on my site at 20% off (with code WINE20) before the champagne shortage hits!
Opt for some Spanish Cava or California Sparkling if you like the yeasty flavors of champagne but only want to spend $20.
Try some Prosecco if you don’t like the yeasty/bready champagne flavors and want all fruit! Only $15.
Be a trend setter and serve an adventurous PetNat (like this PetNat of Sauvignon Blanc) if you want something delightful, historic, low intervention and definitely different! Pricing $20-40.
If sweet wines are your thing, then you must try sparkling Moscato d’Asti or Brachetto d'Acqui for only $10. I can usually find these at our local Costco or Total Wine.

Thanks for reading and I hope you learned a bunch! Which sparkling wine will you try next? Add your comments below and let me know what you think or if you have any questions.