Sparkling wines please the wallet, if not the palate

If you love sparkling wines, then you know that quality comes with a price. Spend $30 and you’ll have your choice from a number of tasty and complex French champagnes. Spend $10 and … well … bubbles are always nice.

Truth be told, at this time of year “good” becomes a relative term when applied to these festive wines. There is plenty to celebrate, and the sound of a cork popping can be enticing even if it signals the opening of a bottle of $6 plonk.

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Hyosub Shin/hshin@ajc.com

There are lots and lots of cheap French sparklers on the market and they vary in quality. Only those from the Champagne region are labeled ‘champagne.’

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With that thought in mind, we picked up 10 fairly commonly available sparkling wines, each costing $10 or less, and lined them up to see how they fared.

We found the wines at Sherlock’s Wine Merchant in Decatur, Ansley Wine Merchants in Atlanta and Total Wine & More in Dunwoody.

A couple of these recommended sparklers stood out. A couple were gawdawful. But most were innocuously simple and pleasant — OK by themselves, probably better with a splash of orange juice or sweet liqueur.

Here are our very brief and opinionated notes:

Cruse Blanc de Blancs Extra Dry (France, about $7): Sweet and simple — the wine to entertain older relatives with.

Depréville Brut (France, about $9): Absolutely affectless — the Diet Sprite of sparklers. Mimosas, anyone?

Segura Viudas Brut Cava(Spain, about $7): Dry and simple to drink, but with alluring sweet nose like apricot jam.

Chase-Limogère Brut (California, $9): Low in acid, with a surprisingly sweet finish for a wine labeled “brut.” Fine for a plastic-cup toast.

Paul Brehan Brut Blanc de Blancs Brut (France, about $10): Really weird, with a flavor like French’s mustard.

François Montand Blanc de Blancs Méthode Traditionelle (France, about $10): Complex flavors for the price, with a little bit of champagne yeastiness missing from the others.

Il Cortigiano Prosecco (Italy, about $9): Just what you want from a prosecco — crisp, fresh flavors riding a wave of endless small bubbles.

Cristalino Rosé Brut(Spain, about $6.50): The white Cristalino can be found everywhere, but look for the rosé, which has layered, complex flavors. Great for the price.

Casa Sant’orsola Moscato d’Asti (Italy, about $10): Deliciously sweet and exotic wine, with small, gentle bubbles. Great for dessert.

Jean-Louis Blanc de Blancs Brut (France, about $9): Our bottle was corked, but it seemed like there was a yeasty, appealing wine underneath the strong flavor of cork taint (which hits 3 percent of 7 percent of all wines, according to one industry estimate).

BUBBLY ADVICE

Here are a few things to keep in mind when shopping for inexpensive sparkling wines:

• There are three common ways that bubbles get into wine: 1. The famous méthode champenoise, in which the wine gets a secondary fermentation in the bottle; 2. The Italian method, in which the bulk wine gets a secondary fermentation in a tank before bottling; 3. An injection of carbon dioxide, which we can call the Coca-Cola method.

• Wines labeled “brut” will be drier than those labeled “extra dry.” If you like a little sugar, go for the latter.

• There are lots and lots of cheap French sparklers on the market and they vary in quality. Only those from the Champagne region are labeled “champagne.” Those that are made by the méthode champenoise in other regions will be labeled crémant, while those made with an injection of carbon dioxide will likely be labeled vin mousseux.

• Spanish cavas are made by the méthode champenoise. They usually come in whites and rosés.

• Italian proseccos range from quite sweet to very dry, and it’s hard to tell from the bottle what you’ll get. You’ll need advice to find one that suits your taste.