Sparkling wine or Champagne? Whats the difference?!
Answers: No difference, just the name and price. Champagne commands a higher price and represents upper class, a symbol that sparkling wine does not.
Champagne is a licensed brand of an area in France named Champagne.
Sparkling wine is not from Champagne.
Some sparkling wines are better than some Champagnes.
Stay away from any thing called sparkling burgundy, even if it's named Cold Duck!
To be called champagne, it has to be produced in the Champagne region of France. A sparkling wine is created using the same methods but it's from a place other than that one region.
I believe that the growers from the Champagne region of France objected to the use of the word Champagne for other sparkling wines. Internationally the word Champagne can no longer be used to refer to any sparkling wine, only those from the Champagne district of France. Therefore all other wines that formerly would be known as Champagne are now called sparkling wines. Other than the name and of course the calibur of the wine, there is no difference.
Champagne is a licensed appelation in France. Only grapes grown in that region and made sparkling wine from can be called Champagne. If it's not made with a certain percentage of grapes from that region and not made with Methode Champenois, than it can't be called Champagne, just sparkling wine.
Champagne is a widely used term which is also widely misused as a generic term for all bubblies. Not that there aren't great sparkling wines out there!