Champagne

The wine of celebration itself — true Champagne comes only from France's Champagne region, and its bubbles are born inside the bottle. Ingredients: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier grapes from chalky northern vineyards. Method: 1) Make a still base wine, blend across grapes, villages and years, and bottle it with yeast and sugar. 2) A second fermentation in the bottle creates the bubbles; the wine then rests on its lees — at least 15 months by law, fine houses age far longer. 3) Disgorge the yeast, dose, cork, and serve well chilled in a tulip or flute. The experience: razor-fine bubbles, citrus, white flowers, brioche and chalk — joy with a mineral spine. History: tradition credits the monk Dom Pérignon with refining its craft in the late 1600s; by the 1800s Champagne was the toast of every court in Europe, and it still opens every celebration that matters.