Had an excellent meal at Bleu Provence in Naples. The Bollinger Brut Cuvee Special paired very well with the escargot, pate' & moules-frites (had a 2014 Chateau Fontanes Pic St Loup Prestige with my b'day filet mignon). Their sommelier, who helped us select the red from his very extensive cellar, was quite knowledgeable about the Bollinger and explained how they age their champagnes in bulk casks, which is different from most producers, producing a smoother product. We agreed with his assessment and found it very enjoyable, but we both think we prefer the Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label.

For every day easy drinking bubbles, we have settled on Piper-Heidsieck Brut (the red label). We get it for $32 a bottle which is a great deal for French NV Champagne.

Tried it many years ago at a tasting that included Dom Perignon and Krug. Shocked at how good the Piper is.

I have collected wine for over 40 years. I love good Champagne but can't justify the prices of the vintage and top flight stuff. When we drank Krug for $80/bottle (many years ago in France), that was great. At twice the price now here in the US, not worth it to me.

We used to get Bollinger and Veuve Clicquot NV Brut for $18/bottle. Big producers that are capitalizing on their names now.

Look for grower Champagne, some good deals to be had and better than the mass produced stuff.

I see lots of recommendations for Champagne from the big houses but no love for all the grower champagne on the market. That's the value play. Most of these growers started by selling their grapes to the big houses. The trend of the past 10 years or so is for each of these guys to bottle their own. Agrapart, Bereche, Pierre Peters, Jose Dohnt, are just a few to seek out. Many of these wines are in the $40 range and outperform the low end offerings from the big houses.

Piper is vert good, been drinking a fair amount of Jacobs Creek champaign from Austrailia lately. Back in the late 90,s while living on the island of Guam my good friend owned the cigar divan in the Hilton hotel which also sold fine wines and we both loved champaign especially the Bollinger Grand Anee he would pop frequently while smoking cigars. In the 3 plus years I lived their I cant count how many bottles of Grand Anee we drank.

While growing up in the US are favorites budget champaign was Korbel Blanc de blanc and Natural.