It’s fizzy, it goes down easy and tonight people around the globe will be clinking glasses of champagne to ring in the new year. But why? Why does the bubbly stuff pair so well with “Auld Lang Syne”? These are questions that must be answered before the ball drops, obviously. And this way you can have a fun party fact to impress whoever might be willing to listen. [More]
Behind The Bubbly: Why You’ll Be Toasting 2013 With Champagne Tonight
By December 31, 2012
Fancy People, Revelers Everywhere Worried About This Year’s Low Champagne Harvest
By November 14, 2012
That bubbly you toast with on New Year’s Eve (or any toastable occasion, like finishing a work week without crying more than four times) could be in danger: France is reporting its lowest champagne harvest in 40 years, after vineyards were severely damaged by hailstorms, wet weather and fungus. [More]
Sparkling Wine Is Just As Good As Champagne (When It's Well Made)
By October 21, 2009
The Champagne Bureau, a trade organization representing “the grape growers and houses of Champagne, France,” just sent us a nonsensical press release warning consumers to be on the lookout for imposter champagne. WATCH OUT! You’re pouring sparkling wine into your mouth, you jerk! The thing is, the only real reason “champagne” is unique is because wine houses in that region of France managed to get laws passed to prevent anyone else from using the word on their own sparkling wines. They’re all sparkling wines; how they’re made is what determines quality.
You People Are Buying A Lot Of Champagne
By December 24, 2007
Not since the buying frenzy of 1999, when people bought champagne in bulk to ring in the millennium, have U.S. champagne and sparkling wine sales been so high. Volume for 2007 is expected to hit 900 million glasses, up 4% over 2006, says the 2007 Impact Annual Wine Study.
Ahhhh, the Frenshhh… Orson Welles for Paul Masson
By March 13, 2006
It’s Monday morning. After a weekend of lubricated excess, our skulls seem just about ready to split open in jagged cranial shards, expelling the alcohol-befuddled goop inside. The universe does dizzying pirouettes about us; all we want to do is lay on the couch, watch the Sleepover Club on Nickelodeon, remark to ourselves how some of those girls are definitely long-term investments and sweat out our delirium tremens. Yet here we are, soldiering forth against our body’s most desperate urges to our loathed jobs, where being drunk is simply not a valid excuse for absence. Except in Ireland.
