Years ago I made myself a New Year’s resolution that I’ve actually kept — which puts it in a category of one. Before any fine dining experience, I open with a glass of Champagne or sparkling wine. Not during dinner, not after. Before. Just one glass, alone or with whoever I’m with, to mark the transition from the rest of the day into something worth paying attention to. It works every time. There is something about those bubbles that clears the palate, sharpens the senses, and signals to your brain that what’s coming next deserves your full presence. It has become a ritual I won’t give up, and over the years it has pushed me to actually learn what I’m drinking rather than just grabbing whatever’s on the list.
What follows are five bottles worth knowing — spanning from a California gem that will genuinely surprise you at its price to the splurge that earns every cent of its price tag. All of them show up on wine lists. All of them are available at a good wine shop or Total Wine. All of them are worth the glass.
Roederer Estate Brut Multi-Vintage, Anderson Valley — Around $22–25. Here is the bottle that belongs on this list precisely because most people don’t know it. Founded in 1982 as the California arm of Champagne Louis Roederer — the house behind Cristal — Roederer Estate set up in Anderson Valley in Mendocino County, where the cool coastal air and fog create conditions surprisingly close to what you find in Champagne. The result is a sparkling wine made entirely from estate-grown fruit, using the same méthode traditionnelle as any great Champagne house, with oak-aged reserve wines folded into each blend for body and complexity. The current release scored 93 points from Wine Spectator and landed at number 20 on their Top 100 Wines of 2024. In the glass it delivers pear, spiced apple, toasted brioche, and a clean hazelnut finish — precise and focused in a way that domestic sparkling wines rarely are.
This is the bottle you open before dinner and your guest asks what it is, and when you tell them it’s California and under $25 they don’t believe you. Pair it with a shrimp cocktail, oysters, or a light charcuterie board. For a full meal pairing, it’s exceptional before anything with crab — a crab cake starter, a Dungeness crab salad, or a well-made bisque — where its acidity and freshness do exactly what they should.
Moët & Chandon Impérial Brut NV — Around $45–50. The best-selling Champagne in the world, and for good reason. Moët Impérial is a blend of all three classic Champagne grapes — Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and Chardonnay — and it delivers that unmistakable balance of fresh fruit, brioche, and fine bubbles that made the category famous. It’s the house Champagne at restaurants around the globe for a reason: it’s approachable for novices, respectable to enthusiasts, and consistent year after year. The floral notes and hint of candied ginger in a good pour are genuinely lovely.
At home, it drinks beautifully alongside fried chicken (don’t laugh — it works brilliantly), sushi, or a creamy pasta with crab. For a full pre-dinner experience, pour it before a meal built around lobster bisque or butter-poached fish and let the effervescence cut through the richness.
Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Brut NV — Around $55–65. The iconic yellow label is probably the most recognized bottle in fine dining, and it has earned that status honestly. Veuve leads with Pinot Noir — typically over half the blend — which gives it a body and richness that sets it apart from lighter, more Chardonnay-forward Champagnes. You get green apple and citrus up front, a creamy mid-palate, and a finish that lingers. It’s the bottle people reach for when they want to feel like the occasion matters, and it reliably delivers that feeling.
Food-wise it’s one of the more versatile bottles on this list — it handles everything from raw oysters to roasted chicken to a good cheese plate. For a meal pairing, open it before pan-seared scallops or a well-executed beef tartare, where its body and acidity can stand up to something with real flavor.
Taittinger Brut Réserve NV — Around $50–60. Taittinger is the wine for people who find Veuve a little too bold and want something more elegant and precise. One of the few major Champagne houses still family-owned, Taittinger leans heavily on Chardonnay — usually around 40 to 50 percent — which gives it a lighter, more delicate profile. The bubbles are finer, the finish is longer, and there’s a floral, almost ethereal quality to a well-chilled pour that makes it particularly well-suited to the kind of pre-dinner moment I’m describing. Notes of white peach, fresh pastry, and a chalky minerality that reminds you exactly where it comes from.
This one pairs beautifully with oysters, caviar if you’re feeling ambitious, or a first course of carpaccio. For a full dinner pairing, it’s exceptional before a tasting menu — the kind of meal where you want your palate clean and alert rather than already overwhelmed.
Dom Pérignon Brut Vintage — Around $290–320 for the current 2015 release. Some bottles justify their price and some don’t. Dom Pérignon justifies it. The prestige cuvée of Moët & Chandon, Dom is only produced in exceptional years — no non-vintage release, ever — and it ages a minimum of seven years before it reaches the market. The 2015 is the current release, and it is extraordinary: a blend of roughly equal parts Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, with a depth and complexity that unfolds over the course of a glass. Brioche, white cherry, lemon curd, a hint of smoke, and a finish that doesn’t quit.
This is not an everyday bottle — it’s a bottle for the dinner that marks something. It was made for the table at Nobu, at The Mansion, at any room where what’s coming next is worth the ceremony. Before a multi-course tasting menu, before a celebrated anniversary dinner, before the meal you’ll still be talking about in ten years — this is what you open. It pairs most naturally with the finest raw preparations: uni, caviar, a pristine crudo. But it’s honest enough to stand up to a perfectly roasted duck or a classic sole meunière too.
