I love champagne both as an aperitif and to celebrate special occasions. New Year's Eve, possibly the biggest champagne occasion on the calendar got me thinking about which ones I like and it turns out I have 7 favorite champagnes.

Quick tips to a successful Champagne purchase - from Eric Asimov's Best Champagne shopping List, New York Times

Distinguishing your Champagne style:

Blanc de Blanc Champagne - translates to white from white and is made solely from chardonnay grapes and tends to have great elegance and finesse

Blanc de Noir - White from black is for champagnes made only of black grapes, often but not always just pinot noir. It's more robust than blanc de blancs and much rarer

Brut - The amount of the dosage determines how dry the Champagne will be. Brut is the most common designation, indicating a wine that can range from 0 - 12 grams of residual sugar per liter, though nowadays most brut are 6 to 10 grams

Extra Brut - indicates a very dry Champagne, with 0 to 6 grams of residual sugar per liter

Extra Dry - paradoxically this indicates a much sweeter Champagne than brut, up to 17 grams residual sugar per liter. Demi-sec is even sweeter.

I tend to stick with the big champagne houses because of their high quality and consistency. Here are my 7 favorites…