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20 Best Luxury Champagnes For Gifting, Hosting and Celebrating New Year's Eve
Our wine experts popped 41 bottles to find the very best for 2023.
We'll be honest, we don't need an excuse to crack open a bottle of champagne. But given Christmas is right around the corner, have a great bottle of bubbles handy is even more essential. So our panel of wine experts have collated the best easy-drinking aperitifs for effortless entertaining, their favourite fizz for gifting, and the bottles to keep all to yourself.
And if you prefer la vie en rose, they’ve also shared their favourite rosé champagne picks and English sparkling wines worth toasting with, too. Cheers!
Best champagne to drink in 2023
How we test champagne
The ELLE Lab consists of a panel of 10 testers, made up of WSET-trained wine experts and general fizz fans. We asked them to give their honest feedback on 50 bottles of champagne. Each was served chilled and blinded to avoid brand bias, with the panel looking for flavours across the full spectrum — from fresh and fruity, to rich and full-bodied.
Read on for the 20 top-rated luxury brands to try this festive season, as well as the flutes and coupes to serve them in.
Stacey is our Senior Food and Drink Editor, looking after all food and drink reviews — from coffee pods and veg boxes, to natural wine and tequila.
Stacey is also founder of Crummbs, where she’s written nearly 2,000 restaurant and hotel reviews since 2013. Prior to this, Stacey wrote hundreds of in-depth buying guides for the Independent, i newspaper and BBC Good Food, as well as reviewing restaurants and interviewing celebrities in her column at Balance Magazine.
Stacey has also appeared in BAFTA-nominated BBC documentary Blood, Sweat & Takeaways, where she investigated South East Asia's food production industry, appearing on both Newsnight and BBC World Service to share her findings.
Regularly checking out the latest restaurants, bars and product launches, Stacey also loves experimenting with recipes at home, and is a WSET-certified wine and spirits expert, with over 10 years of experience in the business.
You can follow Stacey on Instagram @crummbs_uk
Millie is our food, wine and spirits writer, with five years’ experience writing product reviews, buying guides, breaking news and about the latest trends.
Millie has also reviewed countless restaurants and written travel features for British GQ, The Telegraph and the Independent, and has interviewed a number of leading chefs, including Jamie Oliver, Heston Blumenthal and Raymond Blanc.
Founder of creative catering brand @grazeandgorge, Millie also spends her time creating seasonal recipes and tablescape content, as well as planning her next golden retriever-friendly getaway and rearranging her own home bar cart (... again).
Callum is our Food and Drink Testing Manager and has been part of the world of professional catering for 10 years, from cheffing to food manufacturing. While working in manufacturing he specialised in bespoke product and menu development for several start-ups and well-known brands such as Wrap It Up! and HOP Vietnamese. He holds the WSET Level 2 in wine, a Level 3 in spirits and has a particular interest in agave spirits.
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