The Best Champagne on a Budget

New Year’s Eve is fast approaching, and for most of us over 21, that means a champagne toast is on the way as well! But bottles of bubbly can be expensive- and if you’re the host of your New Year’s Eve soirée, even just a couple of bottles for your guests can easily take a toll on your wallet.

Luckily, they don’t have to! Between myself and my (very cooperative) family members, we taste-tested and judged 3 budget-friendly bottles: all from Walmart, and all under $10. (Did you hear that? I think it was your credit card breathing a huge sigh of relief.) I also made sure they were all of the extra dry variety, just for consistency.

All 3 champagnes were judged appearance, their “bubbly factor”, their taste, and the overall rating (in case you have one category you’re partial to). Each champagne got very high and very low scores in each categories, but I have averaged all the votes so it’s easy to tell the results. If you’re interested in the voting breakdown, you can find the individual ratings here.

So, without any further ado, let’s get right into the reviews!

BOTTLE #1: Cook’s

Price: $7.98/bottle
Appearance: 7.75/10
Bubbly Factor: 8.5/10
Taste: 5.125/10
Overall Rating: 6.625/10

A good portion of the room preferred Cook’s over the other brands. However, it tended to be the parents in the room compared to the Gen-Zs. It received the second highest average score overall. It scored the highest in terms of appearance and how bubbly it was, but scored the lowest for taste.

BOTTLE #2: Barefoot

Price: $8.73/bottle
Appearance: 6.625/10
Bubbly Factor: 5.625/10
Taste: 5.25/10
Overall Rating: 5.75/10

No one preferred Barefoot over the other brands, which surprised me because the bottle said it was “most awarded,” and it was also the most expensive (if only by $1.) For being such an iconic brand in terms of cheap wine, I thought it would do better. It scored the lowest in almost every category, but it’s average score never dipped below 5, so it’s still decent.

Bottle #3: André

Price: $4.98/bottle
Appearance: 7.375/10
Bubbly Factor: 7.125/10
Taste: 5.875/10
Overall Rating: 7.125/10

André was very polarizing. It had a lot of very high votes and very low votes, but still managed to come out on top for taste and overall. This was also the brand preferred by the Gen-Zs in the room.

OVERALL

While all the bottles were tasty, my personal favorite was André! At $4.98, you just can’t beat the price. If you need affordable champagne for your NYE party (or really any other occasion that calls for it), this is certainly my recommendation!

If you ever want to have your own champagne taste-test, this is the card I handed out to everyone!