What you need to know about champagne (and other sparkling wines)

All that sparkles is not champagne. You may be forgiven for passing off a cheaper fizz as champagne at your holiday party. But if you wonder why your wine fiend friend arches his eyebrow when he sticks his schnozzle into a glass you just poured, here's a short primer on the basic categories of bubbly.

Champagne: The real stuff comes only from the Champagne region of northeastern France. The champenois were so successful at marketing their product that "champagne" became synonymous with bubbles. They also unfortunately marketed and priced themselves into a niche as a luxury item. Champagne is special because the second fermentation - which produces the bubbles - is done in the bottle. This produces the fine "bead" of bubbles characteristic of champagne and helps develop more flavor than the tank fermentation method used on less expensive bubblies.

Most champagnes are made from three grapes: chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier. The latter two are red, but since the juice is separated immediately from the skins (where the color is), the wines are white. A blanc de noirs is a white wine made from red grapes, often just pinot noir, while a blanc de blancs is entirely chardonnay. A typical bottling is "nonvintage," or sometimes now called "multi-vintage," meaning it is a blend of wines from several years.

The vast majority of champagne is made by "houses," which buy grapes from smaller farmers. These are the familiar labels such as Veuve Clicquot, Mumm, Ruinart, Bollinger, Moet & Chandon and many others. There's nothing wrong with these wines, and many are fantastic. But the trend the past 10 or 15 years has been for "grower" champagnes made by the farmers who grew the grapes.

Another trend: Champagne is becoming drier. Brut, or dry champagne, is now joined by extra brut (drier) and brut nature (Saharan).

You can find decent champagne for around $30 and good champagne from $40 and way into the triple digits.

Crémant: The usual term for bubbly from outside the Champagne region in France. These typically come from Bourgogne (Burgundy), Loire or Alsace, though crémant de Bordeaux seems to be increasingly popular. Crémant can be delicious, and is typically considerably less expensive than champagne, though they are made by the same method.

Cava: Spain's answer is made like champagne, with the second fermentation in bottle, but with Spanish grapes: xarel-lo, parellada and macabeo, usually. (Chardonnay sometimes creeps in, and red grapes contribute to rosé blends.) Cava can be a great value.

Franciacorta: Italy's answer, also made in the champagne method (and costing champagne prices). Franciacorta tends to be fruity, compared with champagne's mineral and spice.

Prosecco: The better-known bubbly from Italy is made differently, with the second fermentation in a pressure tank rather than the bottle. Prosecco's bubbles are softer on the palate, and its price softer on the wallet, than champagne's.

Petillant-naturel, or pet-nat: A French term for an ancient process (also called "methode ancestrale") that has become trendy around the world. These wines are bottled during fermentation, so bubbles are produced as the process finishes. Pet-nats are the darlings of the millennial crowd. They're usually bottled under crown cap, so you don't get the celebratory pop of the cork, but you'll be as fashionable as the next guy sipping his grower champagne - brut nature, of course.