Don Ho was right about tiny bubbles, and there’s no better time of the year to warm up and get happy with a great bottle of bubbly. With holiday parties happening nearly every night these days, there’s no doubt that most of us will end up consuming our fair share of cheap, and often tasteless, sparkling wine. But there’s good news: it doesn’t have to be that way. Whatever your price range, there are a number of great sparkling wines available.

Last year we gave you some history into the process of making sparkling wine. And one of the key things we noted when picking a sparkling wine is that there is a difference between sparkling wine and Champagne (note the capital C). All Champagne is sparkling wine but not all sparkling wine is Champagne. True Champagne is made only in Champagne, the northern most wine-making region in France, and is made by a very detailed process called Méthode Champenoise. It’s a distinction that the French take very seriously, since, according to European Union laws, only wines made in Champagne using Méthode Champenoise can be labeled Champagne.

Because Champagne is such a small percentage of the sparkling wine market, it tends to be more expensive. Fortunately, the sparkling wine market has grown leaps and bounds beyond Champagne in the last decade, and there are more fantastic sparkling wines than ever to sample. We worked with Christy Przystawik, owner and resident wine expert at Food Matters in Alexandria, to come up with a list of great sparkling wines to try this holiday season. So whether you want a true Champagne or you’d like to try one of the many other options, we’ve got you covered with recommendations at all price points, and a few cocktail recipes to try out.

Photo by Gaetan Lee