Champagne sales are down, and even persons who can afford it prefer not to be seen flaunting too much in public. Shipments of champagne to the United States dived 41.2 per cent from January to August, according to the Champagne Bureau, the US arm of the region’s official trade group. Tonight the traditional popping of bubbly at midnight to ring in the new year will still happen, but with most persons watching their expenses, lots of excellent alternatives are on the local market.

As my father would say to me, “A man on a passing horse would not know the difference” between champagne and most great sparkling wines of similar style from around the world. I would go further and say that no one in this land we love would be able to pick the single glass of champagne from a blind tasting of a number of glasses of sparkling wines.

Several years ago, following the European Union(EU) ruling which gave champagne the exclusive right to the term “méthode champenoise” and its equivalents in other languages, Italian and Spanish producers of bottle re-fermented sparkling wines began to address the problem of how to indicate to the consumer the difference between their wines and all the others. Spain uses the term ‘Cava’ very early to describe their top-class sparkling offering. Italy struggles with the umbrella term ‘spumante’ as it refers to Asti and Prosecco all the way to cheap carbonated plonk and everything else sparkling made from different origins, production methods, styles and price ranges.

Spanish alternatives to Champagne

Like all other EU countries, Spain had to abandon the use of the term “Champaña”, but they have done a tremendous job in building and marketing the term Cava. Cava means “cellar” in Catalan, and this sparkling wine is made in the exact same way that Champagne is made. While it is made with its own grapes – Macabeo, Parellada, Xarel-lo, they have now allowed Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in the mix. The biggest names in Cava production are Freixenet (available here) and Cordoniu (no longer available here); however, a proliferation of smaller producers are making distinctive Cava.

Italian alternatives to Champagne

Asti Spumante DOCG and Prosecco are the two Italian sparkling wines that have made the biggest impact on international markets, their commercial success testimony to consistent and reliable quality standards. However, Italy also produces, along the whole length of the peninsular from the Alps to Sicily, a vast array of minor sparkling wines that are much less well known. Sparkling Gavi in Piedmont, Recioto id Soave and Valpolicella in the Veneto, Ribolla Gialla in Friuli, Verdicchio in the Marches and Asprino di Aversa in Campania all fall into this category. Then there are the Charmat method wines made in Piedmont and the Oltre Po by several major bottling houses using Riesling Italico (not to be confused with the much superior Rhine Riesling, which is not suited to the production of sparkling wine) and the very unusual aromatic, sparkling red also made in Piedmont from the Brachetto.

Some reports indicate that Prosecco outsold Champagne in the USA this year, one producer Zonin saw 43 per cent growth in exports to the United States from 2008-2009, for 9-litre cases. Casa Vinicola Zonin is the largest privately held wine company in Italy. A number of their products are available and very well received in the local market.

Other bubbly from around the world

Great sparkling wines are made all over the world. Here is a short list of some names that you might come across in your travels: Cremant de Loire, Vouvray brut and other Loire bubbles from Loire Valley, France; Cremant from throughout France; Blanquette de Limoux from Southern France; Bugey Cerdon from France’s Jura mountains, west of Geneva; Clairette de Die from Eastern Central Franc; Franciacorta from Lombardy, Italy; Italian brut from Mostly northern Italy; Sekt from Germany and Austria; American, Argentine, Australian, Chilean, and English sparkling wine; Sovetskoe Shampanskoe from Russia and the former Soviet states.

Cheers! Have a safe, happy and prosperous 2010.

Chris Reckord is an independent wine consultant who operates DeVine Wine Services with his wife Kerri-Anne. Chris & Kerri are also part-owners of Jamaica’s first and only wine-only bar – Bin 26 Wine Bar. Please send your questions and comments to creckord@gmail.com . Follow us on twitter.com/DeVineWines