Updated on Jan. 17, 2025
Looking for bubbly on a budget? Our Test Kitchen sampled 20 different bottles to find the best cheap champagne for your celebrations.
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Whether it’s the holidays or you just have something special to celebrate, a bottle of bubbly is always the right choice. It’s an iconic marker of special occasions. Here are some champagne cocktails to make your celebrations more fun!
Next time you raise a glass to toast, know that you don’t have to spend the big bucks to get a good glass of sparkling wine. In fact, the best cheap champagne feels just as special as a pricy bottle. But before you jet off to the store and fill your flute, check out our Test Kitchen’s top sparkling wine picks.
For this test, our Test Kitchen team (many of whom are serious bubbly fanatics) sampled a whopping 20 kinds of affordable champagne in a blind taste test. That’s right—no peeking!
But a few words on this cheap champagne taste test. To start, sparkling wine can only be called Champagne if it comes from the Champagne region of France. If the wine comes from another region—even if it’s elsewhere in France—it’ll be called by another name. This being said, champagne (with a lower case ‘c’) has become the shorthand phrase for sparkling wine.
So for this test, our team used this expanded definition of champagne. They popped open bottles of all kinds of bubbly like Prosecco (an Italian bubbly), Cava (a Spanish sparkler) and even American sparkling wines. Each brand our team selected was under $20 and was scored for fizz and flavor.
Now check out our Test Kitchen-Preferred cheap champagne options!
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Prosecco, a sparkling wine from Italy, is characterized by light fruit flavors. That’s precisely what you get when you pop open a bottle of Cupcake Prosecco.
“This one is light, bright and crisp,” says Shannon Norris in the Test Kitchen. Testers picked up notes of peach and melon in this bottle. Despite the name and the fruity subtleties, Cupcake Prosecco isn’t overly sweet. Shannon explains that this bottle of bubbly walks a fine line between dry or sweet.
This bottle, which retails for about $10, is a great people-pleasing option to include at your holiday table.
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If you prefer your wine, be it cheap champagne or a bottle of the pricey stuff, to be on the slightly dry side, reach for Cook’s California Champagne Brut.
Popping open a bottle of this bubbly feels like a special occasion. This pale California sparkling wine is packed with lots of large bubbles.
Shannon shares that a sip of this cheap champagne is “light, crisp and full of bubbles.” It has notes of tart green apple and lemon zest. “This is one I’d drink, serve and cook with in my kitchen,” says Shannon.
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Next time you’re craving bubbles, our Test Kitchen recommends trying Cava, particularly Rondel Brut Cava. This Spanish sparkling wine isn’t as popular as Champagne or Prosecco, but it’s absolutely fizzy and fantastic.
In fact, the bubbles in this bottle are what really stood out to our Test Kitchen team. Rondel’s Cava was full of various-sized bubbles and held onto this fizz for a long time after pouring—three hours! That’s pretty impressive says our Test Kitchen’s Catherine Ward, a lover of all things champagne. And remember, if you can’t finish the bottle, you can store opened champagne for up to three days.
Beyond these bubbles, this Cava is wonderfully dry with flavors of pear and apple. These features make it a great complement to fish dishes and a striking yet welcome contrast to rich dinners. Give it a try with your Thanksgiving toast! Keep a bottle of non-alcoholic champagne on hand for guests that prefer their drinks NA.
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Snoop Dogg may have been pouring Chandon in his 2004 hit “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” but these days he’s popping open bottles of his own 19 Crimes Snoop Cali Gold Sparkling Wine.
This California-made sparkler is pale in color with the slightest hint of green and “refreshingly sweet,” according to Shannon. It has a bold flavor for a sparkling wine with notes of lemon, nectarines and green apple for a crisp finish.
Made with a blend of Muscat and Riesling grapes (among others), this sweetness is no surprise. But it’s a welcome flavor to pair with one of Snoop’s favorite hobbies: baking. He picked up plenty of pointers while hosting a cooking show with the inimitable Martha Stewart! Martha also has her own wine with 19 Crimes: Martha’s Chard.
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If you prefer a dryer sparkling wine, our team suggests adding Domaine Ste. Michelle Brut to your list of must-try cheap champagnes.
This wine is made in Washington’s Columbia Valley, a climate very similar to Champagne, France. You’ll often see this brut labeled as American-style champagne—and it tastes like one!
This well-balanced, semi-dry sparkling wine has tart, Granny Smith apple notes, whispers of citrus and a toasty finish. While a bottle of Domaine Ste. Michelle Brut will only cost you about $12, “it still feels special,” says Catherine.
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