Sparkling Parties and Bubbly Conversations

“NOBODY LIKES CHAMPAGNE BUT YOU,” my wife said adamantly.

At that moment, with six guests about to arrive at our home, my wife was doing what any good host does: making sure we were serving people what they want. In her experience, some of her friends didn’t like Champagne as much as being greeted with a pleasant glass of red or white wine.

She’s not alone in that way of thought. Sparkling wine and its most prestigious iteration, Champagne, may represent the ultimate celebratory beverage. But as she explained rather defensively (perhaps due to my incredulous stare), “People think it gets you drunk too quickly.”

While it is a common belief that sparkling wine gets you drunk more quickly than other types of wine, it’s not a supported one. The notion that the bubbles speed alcohol through your bloodstream is unlikely; if carbon dioxide bubbles were truly inside your bloodstream, you wouldn’t be living for long. Some say that the bubbles hasten alcohol absorption through the stomach lining, but that’s pretty negligible. As a former banquet captain, I can assure you that people typically sip red and white wines, while they gulp their sparkling wine. It’s just too easy to drink. And it’s not just Champagne; virtually all sparkling wines go down easy. Champagne is just the best known of them.

Any place that makes table wine can, if they are intentional and clever, make tasty bubbly. Missouri is particularly adept, and whenever my offer of Missouri wine is confronted with the stale refusal “Aren’t those all sweet?,” I find Missouri sparklers to be the best antidote. The trick of sparkling wine is that the carbon dioxide bubbles make the wine seem drier than it is. Most Champagnes are one percent to two percent liquid sugar, but you don’t see people refusing a toast because “It’s too sweet.”

Our weather and grapes in Missouri are ideal for the early picking of high-acid grapes; indeed, if your experience of Missouri wines is that they’re sweet, it’s partly because, without some sweetness, they’re too damned dry. Our state’s grapes are usually more tart than famed grapes like Cabernet and Chardonnay, so adding in a little sweetness helps. And if you are making sparkling wine, tartness is ideal; in fact, it’s a required trait for racy and refreshing sparkling wine.

In Missouri, you’ll find sparklers made from floral grapes like Traminette or Valvin Muscat, fruit grapes like Vignoles or Vidal Blanc, or herbal grapes like Seyval Blanc. Because the bubbles are the dominant sensation, each of those grapes provides a subtle characteristic, more in the lingering palate than in the aromas. Missouri sparkling wine can be a revelation for those who have already dismissed our wines as all the same.

You might not be surprised to know that I served a bottle of vintage Champagne to my wife’s friends despite her admonition. Six of the eight attendees greedily drank the bottle dry in minutes. So, maybe people like Champagne and sparkling wines after all.

Doug Frost is both a Master of Wine and Master Sommelier, one of only three in the world to achieve both titles. He lives in Kansas City.

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The article was originally printed in the November/December 2025 of Missouri Life.