let's see, so far you have me buying cigars at the sis, lining up for the next to last
day at the Carnegie deli, don't worry we have several Harold's deli in NJ, and they have a free pickle bar
with lunch & dinner. but no one is confirming or nay-saying my champagne choices.
Difficult to confirm or besmirch what one hasn't drunk. I've had VC, but never the marques you mentioned. I dunno, I think even cheap Champagne is quite drinkable, so long as it's actually Champagne and it's Brut.
the orange label is their non vintage brut, white label vintage, Le Grand Dame, within a dollar or two of
Moet & Chandon - Dom Perignon
There is no such thing as cheap champagne anymore , sparkling wine is the cheaper varieties and there is some very good stuff in the $10-20 range or in your commie state probably $20-30.
You can get the "real" thing here for about $40, and wine doesn't have that much of a tax burden.
Not that I care what the French think is "real". Imagine Cuba trying to insist that a rolled bundle of tobacco in a tobacco wrapper couldn't be called a cigar unless it was made in Havana.
Don't matter WTF you think if not from the Champagne Region it is not champagne it is sparkling wine.
If it's made the same way, from the same variety of grapes, it's Champagne...not that I particularly care what anyone calls it. French grapes were wiped out by blight, and were replaced by grapes from the US, specifically California. So anything unique about the Champagne region was lost, at least as far as the grapes are concerned. All that's left is the method. Everything else is window dressing.