Skip to main content

The Manual may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.

Valentine’s Day calls for the very best Champagnes: Our top picks

Valentine's Day calls for real, true blue Champagne. Here are some great options to crack with those you love.

Champagne in glasses
iStock / iStock

Champagne and Valentine's Day go together like Daniel Day Lewis and Oscar nominations. And while there's great sparkling wine to be enjoyed, increasingly so here in the states, a holiday as romantic as this probably deserves the most iconic options within the effervescent category. Yep, real Champagne — you know, the prized and celebratory stuff from the famed and eponymous region in France.

The pop of a bottle of Champagne alone means there's an occasion at hand. Couple that with the wine's lovely texture and food-friendliness (ready the oysters and caviar), and you have a romantic evening in the making. Valentine's Day is steeped in tradition, passion, and the joy of bring together. Much the same can be said about a great bottle of Champagne.

The style tends to fetch impressive asking prices but you don't always have to spend an arm and a leg on good Champagne. We've assembled a solid list, below, that's a mix of overachieving options that won't fully break the bank to splurge-worthy options that will be remembered for years to come. Cheap Prosecco is fine for Tuesday Happy Hour, Cap Classique is interesting and very much worth your time, but Valentine's Day calls for France's finest fizzy wine.

Here are the best Valentine's Day Champagnes.

Perrier Jouët Blanc De Blancs
Perrier Jouët Blanc De Blancs
Jump to details
GH Mumm Grand Cordon Brut
G.H. Mumm Grand Cordon
Jump to details
Lanson Black Label Brut
Lanson Black Label Brut
Jump to details
Roederer Collection
Roederer Brut Premier
Jump to details
Billecart Salmon Brut Rose
Champagne Billecart-Salmon Brut Rose
Jump to details
Ayala Blanc de Blancs Brut Aÿ Champagne 2014
Ayala Blanc de Blancs Brut Aÿ Champagne 2014
Jump to details
Valentin Leflaive
Valentin Leflaive
Jump to details
Krug Grand Cuvée 168ème Édition
Krug Grand Cuvee
Jump to details
Bollinger Special Cuvee
Bollinger Special Cuvee
Jump to details
Perrier Jouet Champagne.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Perrier Jouët Blanc De Blancs

Perrier Jouët Blanc De Blancs is vibrant, dynamic, and as bright and fresh as the morning dew. It's the perfect Champagne to serve as an aperitif. It pairs well with striped bass, white plum, and peas.

Perrier Jouët Blanc De Blancs
Perrier Jouët Blanc De Blancs
GH Mumm Rose.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

G.H. Mumm Grand Cordon

G.H. Mumm Grand Cordon Rosé expresses its intense, fruity character with rich aromas of wild, brambly fruit. Appetizingly elegant and intense, the wine delivers freshness and lasting flavors. It's an energetic as the color it shows in the glass.

GH Mumm Grand Cordon Brut
G.H. Mumm Grand Cordon
Lanson Black Label Brut Champagne Bottle
Champagne Lanson

Lanson Black Label Brut

This wine is all about tension, powerful yet patient, strong yet graceful. People struggle to pull of those opposite-ends-of-the-spectrum traits but not good wine. Oh no, Champagne excels at such a thing.

Lanson Black Label Brut
Lanson Black Label Brut
A bottle of Roederer Brut Premier.
Louis Roederer

Roederer Brut Premier

Simply put, you can't go wrong with a bottle of Roederer. The brand may be famous for Cristal (delicious, but you'll need to be a celeb to afford it) but its many other offerings exhibit serious quality and deft winemaking. The brand is also one of the most innovative Champagne producers on the wine map. This gorgeous wine reflects the wine house's many, many merits.

Roederer Collection
Roederer Brut Premier
Billecart Salmon Brut Rosé
Champagne Billecart-Salmon

Champagne Billecart-Salmon Brut Rose

This is such a stunning wine that you'll likely hold on to the bottle once it's finished as a reminder to buy more. Graceful and flavorful, it shows poached pear, peach, and wild cherry flavors, all dressed up in the most welcoming of textures.

Billecart Salmon Brut Rose
Champagne Billecart-Salmon Brut Rose
A bottle of Ayala champagne,
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Ayala Blanc de Blancs Brut Aÿ Champagne 2014

One of the great features of Chardonnay is its vintage variability and ability to age to perfection over time. Here's a great example, made from 100% Chardonnay grapes and produced in small quantities in exceptional years only. Right from the start, this wine is fresh and lively, followed by a broad and appetizing palate of white fruit and acacia honey with subtle pastry and brioche overtones.

Ayala Blanc de Blancs Brut Aÿ Champagne 2014
Ayala Blanc de Blancs Brut Aÿ Champagne 2014
Valentin Laflaive champagne.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Valentin Leflaive

Valentin Leflaive is Olivier Leflaive’s foray into Champagne, bringing a very Burgundian approach to his making champagne by focusing on a single grape. The nose is fresh, citrus fruits such as tangerine and lime punctuated by saline notes. On the palate, there is great finesse, it is chiseled with a nice volume.

Valentin Leflaive
Valentin Leflaive
Krug Grand Cuvee Champagne Bottle
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Krug Grand Cuvee

In Krug's vast Champagne-making history, there really hasn't been a bad bottle. The Grand Cuvée is always opulent, a lovely wine that's so well integrated it tastes like the work of magicians. It's a splurge, no question about it (but nowhere close to as pricy as the most expensive Scotch Whiskies), but a worthy one.

Krug Grand Cuvée 168ème Édition
Krug Grand Cuvee
Bollinger champagne.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Bollinger Special Cuvee

A signature since its inception, R.D. has had a lasting impact on the Bollinger style. This vibrant Champagne pushes the craft to the next level with a mastery of time and rarity. It is best paired with cheese, chicken, duck and game bird, white fish, mushrooms, nuts, pasta, root vegetables, shellfish, and turkey.

Bollinger Special Cuvee
Bollinger Special Cuvee

If you didn't have Valentine's Day plans before, you do now. Luckily, it won't take much more than a great bottle or two of fantastic Champagne to wow your partner. A great wine like this can turn a regular evening into an incredible occasion the moment you pop the cork.

Mark Stock

Mark Stock is a writer from Portland, Oregon. He fell into wine during the Recession and has been fixated on the stuff since. He spent years making, selling, and sipping Pinot Noir in the Dundee Hills before a full return to his journalistic roots in 2016. He's helplessly tied to European soccer, casting for trout, and grunge rock. In addition to The Manual, he writes for SevenFifty Daily, Sip Northwest, The Somm Journal, The Drake, Willamette Week, Travel Oregon, and more. He has a website and occasionally even updates it: markastock.com.

Send all editorial inquiries HERE.

These are 5 of the world’s most expensive tequilas
Discover the tequilas of choice for the discerning connoisseur
Clase Azul

If your only experience with tequila is mixing it into a margarita or imbibing it in shot form with salt and a lime wedge, you're really missing out. I get it. I've enjoyed my fair share of turbo-charged margaritas in my years of drinking, and I've partaken in a shot from time to time. But there's so much more to this popular Mexican spirit than this.

Sure, there are bottom-shelf and bargain-priced plastic handles of tequila available at every liquor retailer from Bangor to Bakersfield. And yes, countless premium blanco, reposado, and añejo tequilas are available that are worth your while. But there are also a handful of ridiculously expensive bottles available as well. Let's dive into the most expensive tequilas you can (or can't) get your hands on.
The most expensive tequilas

Read more
The world nearly ran out of one of its favorite beers
What? No Guinness?
Guinness

Supply and demand are constantly in flux but a recent shortage caused a major brand some shock. Guinness, the company behind the world's most famous dark beer, had to tap into its emergency supply so as not to run out. With distribution to just about every bar on planet Earth, Guinness is one of the largest producers in the land.

So how could the beer possibly stop flowing? It's been reported that the holiday stretch in Britain took a huge dent out of the draft lines. So much so that Guinness had to retreat to its emergency beer stockpiles in Ireland to keep pint glasses full.

Read more
Chow down on these 10 crowd-pleasing Super Bowl recipes
Need an excuse to fire up the grill? Well, the Super Bowl and these corresponding recipes are pretty good reason to
Turkey neck gumbo.

The Super Bowl is mere days away, meaning if you don't have your snack and drinks game starling lineups, it's time to put them together. With the big game happening in New Orleans this year, we thought we'd go Bayou with some choice recipes. And firing up the grill is never a bad way to feed a hungry crowd, so we threw in some great BBQ options as well.

We've assembled a list of ten spectacular recipes that will please every member of the party. From dips to full-on dishes, it's all there. Better, we've hit up James Beard Award-winning pros for the recipes.

Read more