Best Inexpensive Valentine Champagne (Recommendations for Any Romantic Occasion)

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Champagne is the drink of celebrations, royalty and stars. It is also a drink linked with romance. But Champagnes can be budget breakers–real Champagne is generally a very expensive drink.

In this article, we’ll explore why Champagne is so costly, why the term Champagne is sometimes misused and I’ll even share some of my favorite recipes for a great Champagne cocktail. But first, let’s get to the reason you’re here, to discover great value Champagne.

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Finding good affordable Valentine Champagne

I drink a lot of Champagne, certainly more than the average consumer, probably more than most other wine critics. And I could list about two dozen of the best cheap Champagnes. But my goal with this list is to steer you toward something special. And by that, I mean Champagnes that are particularly suited to date night. The problem with Champagne is that it costs more to make than most adult beverages. I’ll explain how it’s made later after I reveal my favorite Champagnes for a budget because I’ve got some great ones to recommend.

My best budget Champagne recommendations for romantic occasions

Note that all the Champagnes recommended in this list are non-vintage. Although I’m recommending them here for Valentine’s Day, these wines make a wonderful choice for any romantic occasion.

Canard-Duchêne Brut Champagne

This great value Champagne offers a seductive, smoky note along with yeasty and honey notes on its aroma. In the mouth, it’s full of freshness and is likely to make you crave a plate of aphrodisiac oysters.

Leclerc Briant Réserve Brut Champagne

This is my pick for anyone looking to drink biodynamic Champagne on a budget. The winery is known as an early leader in sustainable practices and beyond that, they make a remarkably delicious Champagne for under $50. It offers a touch of baking spice on the nose and the lightness of lemon meringue acidity on the palate.

Champagne Ayala Brut Majeur

If you want a wine that truly represents the complexity and quality of Champagne on a sparkling wine budget, you need to get to know Ayala. The Brut Majeur offers finesse and elegance yet it has bright acidity and ripe fruit flavors that still make it feel festive. This is a lovely wine for any occasion but I think it will hit a home run on date night.

Champagne Ayala Brut Rosé Majeur

A charmingly pink wine, this is my pick for Valentine’s Day, not just for color but for quality. As remarkably elegant as the Brut, this blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier has the freshness of ripe berries. But an underlying chalky note gives it an earthiness, a sense of place. It is the sort of wine to sweep you up in its romance, if only until the bottle is drained.

Ariston Aspasie Brut Rosé Champagne

If you want to drink pink but the Ayala is a little out of your price range, then this is the Rosé to put a smile on your face. An excellent value, it is a full-bodied rosé made from a blend of Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Its fruit flavor is like a big bowl of strawberries and minerality on the finish gives it a bit of sophistication. It is a lovely pink Champagne for a Valentine’s Day toast.

Champagne Lallier Grand Rosé

One additional option for the Brut Rosé drinker, Lallier’s version is a crisp yet intense version of the style. Unlike the wild berry notes of many rosés, this one leads with stone fruit and exotic spice. It’s a sexy wine for sure. And it’s a wine that is perfect for sipping on its own, served with a light meal or just a grazing board of snacks you can feed one another.

Champagne Bollinger Special Cuvée

This is one of those Champagnes that just makes everyone feel special. It is the wine James Bond drank. And any guy who wants to feel like an international man of mystery or any woman who wants to make a man feel like a sexy secret agent will love pouring this. It is not a cheap Champagne by any means. But it is a great value, easily as elegant and finely crafted as Champagnes that cost twice the price.

Beyond the ties to intrigue and mystery, the wine is incredibly elegant. It offers yeasty, brioche notes and the most remarkably tiny, vibrant stream of bubbles. This is sexy wine.

Why making Champagne is expensive

As I mentioned, it’s hard to find great, cheap Champagne because making this wine is expensive. The wines of the Champagne region are strictly regulated. Only three grapes are acceptable for use in Champagne. These are Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay. The three may be blended but no other grapes are ever used in Champagne.

Like most still wines, Champagnes are first fermented and then blended. But unlike many still wines, the goal of most Champagne houses is to keep the blend tasting the same year after year or a “house style.” Most non-vintage Champagnes are made of a blend from several vintages to help maintain this level of consistency.

After blending, the wine is bottled and this is where the “secondary fermentation” occurs, (in other words, when the bubbles develop). A bit of yeast and sugar is added to the bottle to stimulate the natural production of the bubbles.

In Champagne, this must be done by the traditional method and the Champagne must age in the bottle for 15 months before the release date for non-vintage wines and 33 months for vintage Champagnes. (This is another of Champagne’s regulations.)

Of course, before the wine can be released it has to be disgorged, which means removing the blob of yeast that caused the wine to generate bubbles. This can be done by machine or by hand, but it must be done bottle by bottle. The bottles then have to be topped up with what’s called dosage. The dosage is a little bit of Champagne with enough sugar to give the Champagne whatever level of sweetness the maker desires.

Most wine called nice, cheap Champagne is not Champagne

In addition to tasting through every affordable Champagne I could buy to choose these affordable date night wines, I read every article I could find on the topic of “cheap Champagne.”

And I was shocked.

I was not shocked by the prices of the wines or the quality. What shocked me was that every single article I read with “cheap” or “affordable Champagne” in the title – and these were in reputable lifestyle publications, mind you – recommended inexpensive sparkling wines, not Champagnes. (There was one exception. I did find an older article by the wonderful wine writer Lettie Teague using the term Champagne correctly, thank goodness.)

But for the authors of the other articles and any of you who might not realize, before we can recommend Champagne, we need to define Champagne. Because that’s part of what makes it so special and my pick for a Valentine’s wine.

How is Champagne different from sparkling wine?

Champagne is a place…in France. Only wine that comes from the Champagne region is Champagne. Anything else is sparkling wine, also referred to as bubbles or bubbly. All are great terms to define a wine with effervescence but unless that wine is produced in Champagne, that term is inappropriate.

Now that isn’t to say there aren’t great sparkling wines produced around the world. There are. And they are often far more affordable than Champagnes. Ah, but here is where we get to why Champagne is special. The Champagne region has chalky soils and a cool climate. Both of these elements of nature make for grapes high in acidity. This is key to making Champagne, a wine style that is emulated in regions around the world.

There are sparkling wines made in this same, painstaking method. You can get great, finely crafted sparkling wines from around the world. But everything in Champagne is heavily regulated to ensure that all Champagne houses are producing wines of the quality in this expensive and time-consuming method. And thanks to the history, the limited availability and the association with the world’s most glamorous icons, Champagne is like the liquid cherry on top of any romantic occasion.

Champagne cocktail recipes

For something different, try making Champagne cocktails. Here are a few of my favorite cocktail recipes, (be sure to check my notes on using sparkling wine alternatives to Champagne in these drink recipes.)
Cupid’s Kiss Champagne Cocktail
Saffron Fleurtation
Champagne with a Rosewater Kiss

Photo of couple by Joshua Chun

Amy Reiley is an internationally published wine writer as well as a leading authority on aphrodisiac foods. Got a question about wine, food or sexual health? She probably has the answer!

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Amy Reiley

Eat Something Sexy's Creator & Editor-in-Chief Amy Reiley is the award-winning author of five aphrodisiac cookbooks. She has her Master of Arts in Gastronomy, awarded by Le Cordon Bleu and The University of Adelaide. She is also a Certified Nutrition Coach awarded by the International Sports Sciences Association and she is a California Certified Massage Therapist.

Amy is considered a leading authority on aphrodisiacs. Her work in aphrodisiacs is quoted in publications including National Geographic, The New York Times, Epicurious, Wine Enthusiast, Health and Playboy magazines. She speaks internationally on aphrodisiac foods and has brought her knowledge of aphrodisiac history and science to national television shows including The Today Show and CBS Early Show. She is a frequent guest on relationship and lifestyle radio and podcast shows and has been interviewed by BBC and NPR radio, Cosmopolitan radio and popular podcasts including My Dad Wrote a Porno.

Amy is also a freelance food, wine and health researcher and writer as well as a wine competition judge. Her work has appeared in publications ranging from Variety to The Daily Meal. She is an MSN content provider. And she is also a former wine editor for Gayot.com and wine & spirits editor of Las Vegas magazine.

Fun fact: Amy was the creator of the first ever comprehensive food and wine apps, Amy Reiley's Pocket Gourmet and Amy Reiley's Pocket Vineyard for Palm.