Choosing Champagne

Video Transcript

"Now, I don't want to confuse you and I've spent a lot of time talking about value oriented sparkling wines and champagnes because I want you to understand it's a very accessible, very versatile wine. However, there are reasons why champagne is still considered a celebratory beverage. One of them is that when you get to the upper echelons in terms of price and in terms of quality, you get some of these wonderful packages; the crystal bottle that we talked about in terms of Louis Roederer. And this is what is called their "tete de touvee;" "tet" being your head, meaning the very top of the line of what they do. And here's another one. This is the Heidsieck Diamant Rose and it's a vintage rose. We had a non-vintage rose, but in this case, we have a vintage rose. And you've got a beautiful bottle. They sell it in a lovely box that you can use later on for storing different things (DVD's perhaps). And it really is quite festive. The bottle is absolutely gorgeous and I find that the quality of it...they are always going to be picking the best grapes, they are always going to be handling it, they will taste it over and over again in the cellars to make sure that this is absolutely the best that they can find and the best that they have made. And they will only declare a vintage and actually put a vintage date on it when it's absolutely perfect. And when you are celebrating, whether it's a birthday, a birth, a marriage, any sort of celebratory occasion for you and your family (or you and your friends), it's really quite fun to do. Now, it is expensive...sometimes prohibitively expensive and that's why I want to make sure that we know a little bit more about some of the more value-oriented champagnes. But if you are going to go for it, have fun and get something that really is equally beautiful inside the bottle, as well as out."