champagne question
 

wanna get a bottle of champagne..

i've got recommendations for bollinger, dom peri & cristal (brands).
nothing crazy expensive..prolly will spend around $150 or so.

any other recommendations would be greatly appreciated (or comemnts about above three)

Unless you are willing to get a good bottle of Cristal I would suggest getting a couple of bottles of veuve clicquot. It is cheaper than dom and it definitely tastes better. Still, you should tell us what the occassion is so that we have a better idea of what you want.

occassion is the 21st bday party for a friend (girl)...there'll be a lot of other licquor going around, so i doubt it'll be opened there..

she's used to drinking mixed drinks (vodka, tequila, rum, etc), doesnt like beer.

that's about all i can think of for now.

if you don't know if she's going to like the dryness of champagne maybe you should find a good sparking wine like Asti Spumante as it's a bit fruitier and sweeter than the others.

If I were the girl, who's a friend, but not a girl friend, I would have a heart attack if someone spent that amount of money on a bottle of booze that will just get me drunk and give me a hangover.

This was a very fast google....

Champagne glass earrings
http://czfantasy.com/i/champagneear.jpg
Champagne glass earrings -- or some form a jewelry -

With a lesser expensive bottle of champagne...

Dom I don't like, never have either...

Crystal and Veuve are very nice...

Moët etmChandon is also very good

Bollinger's and Piper-Heidsieck Rare are among the best

la veuve cliquot, yes. there are a few grades of her fine fine beverage, which you can modulate as the need be (socially speaking, what you feel is required)----piper-heidsieck is similar but a bit dryer.

most of the bigger name champagnes gouge you for the name factor and the beverage is often not as good as the above. nota fan of moet, for example, unless you get to the millesime range (the vintage year bottles--champagnes made from the best of a given years harvest have the year on them and that's the category: they are more expensive and vary like any vintage wine does).

i dunno: what i remember of my 21st birthday can be summed up in the old saw "dressed up to get messed up" and the quality of the champagne would not have been as big a deal as the fact of it---a bottle of the widow's "basic" yellow label nectar runs about 35.00 (in philadelphia)--so get a few.

luckily, i cant speak to champagne hangovers.
wine and related liquids are in general pretty brutal.

Veuve Cliquot is by far my favorite. It's dry enough not to give you a sickly taste, but still sweet enough to remind you that it's bubbly. Moet is perhaps my second best favorite. I personally don't think that the Dom is that special.

Cliquot should run you between $60 and $100 for the bottle, depending on your state. But remember - a champagne hangover is by far the worst type of hangover to have.

$150 isn't crazy expensive to you?

When I was 21 I would have thought spending $35 for a bottle of Cordon Rouge would have been crazy expensive.

Unless you are engaged to the girl, or living off a trust fund, that is a more appropriate range for a 21st birthday.

I've always been a Moet man myself, but with them it does pay to know your vintages to avoid just paying for the label.

There are many wonderful champagnes for far less than $150 per bottle. Roederer (the makers of Cristal) has a winery in Northern California. Their premium sparkling wine is L'Hermitage. You should be able to find it for @ $35 per bottle. I highly recommend it. Unless you are a real connoisseur, the difference in price will not be discernible via your taste buds.

its a 21st...

if $150 isn't too much for you, then grab the Cristal, if Cristal isn't on offer... then grab DOM.

but, heres a new angle... you might want to grab a bottle of Perrier Jouet instead.

its an absolutely beautiful champagne... it won't be more expensive than Cristal or DOM (if it is, then forget it!), its not commonly touted as THE champagne to have (as Cristal is these days), so it has a unique quality as far as the present aspect is concerned... and, heres the best bit, your girlfriend is going to LOVE the bottle... i bet she keeps it.



have fun.

haha...i'm not crazy or crazy rich (or desperate for that matter :lol: ), i'm splitting the cost with 5-7 people or so. she's just a good friend..so yea, i'm not gonna be spending much..

also, the champange prolly wont be opened during her 21st bday...will have plenty of other alcohol there...so she will prolly remember the taste, since it'll prolly be used on a diff day..its a gift for her..other than that, thx for all the suggestions guys, and if anyone doesnt see somethign that they like posted already, pleast post :)

There are places that you can get custom bottles of champange - I am not sure how good the champagne is -- but it's the bottle that makes it special - -

You could get a custom label - and have all your names on it...

Makes it a really special gift...

http://www.signaturewines.com/

(Their champagne is a Mumm's Sparkinling wine and it's not that bad -)

Yeah, why is that? I know that if I drink champagne, the hangover is always waiting for me...

impurities in the alcohol... sulfites particularly..

Vueve or Krug are my favourites...

I really have no idea why chamoagne hangovers are the worst. If I had time, I might want to research it... It's just one of those things that you always hear as an old wive's tale that very well might have some truth behind it...

Veuve Cliquot is great. I might also mention Pol Roger which, you can drunkenly inform people, was Winston Churchill's favourite champagne.:crazy:

I am a fan of Korbel Brut. I buy a case every New Years.

I don't drink, but my wife swears by Cliquot as well for special occasions. And you'll spend far less than $150 on it.