Drinks: Champagne 101

You're running low on shopping days to get ready to toast the arrival of 2009, so sit up straight and pay attention to these champagne tips.

Champagne doesn't taste sour. Bad champagne does. However, it does have quite a range from tart to sweet.

The most common style is brut -- it's a versatile wine for meals, desserts or just quaffing.

Champagne prices range all over the place, such as $15-$22 for a palatable low-end wine to $30-$60 for the better ones without having to sell your firstborn to pay for even more expensive ones.

What should determine the price is what's in the bottle. A nonvintage wine, usually denoted by the letters NV on the label instead of a vintage year, is a blend from several different years. Vintage wines are produced from a single year.

Some of the other top-tier French champagnes are Taittinger, Moet et Chandon, Bollinger, Cristal, Pol Roger and Dom Perignon. The French-owned Roederer Estate winery in California also produces some nice bubblies.

Champagne is best served as cold as you can get it without putting it in the freezer. That helps maintain the bubbles after opening.

-- Hearst Newspapers