Know your bubbly

Cremant de Bourgogne sparkling wine ($17.99)

L.R. Hunley, manager of Piazza Discepoli's White Oak location, recommends some bottles for big and small budgets alike:

"This is from France, but it's not Champagne. It's a brut. This is mostly made from Chardonnay, so it's crisp, clean ... it's got a nice minerality to it."

(BTW: There are five types of sparkling wine in the world, the difference between them being how sweet they are. "Brut" is the least sweet of the bunch, followed by "Extra Dry," "Sec," "Demi-Sec" and "Rose," which is the sweetest of all sparkling wines available. "I don't know if I'd go recommending a lot of extra-drys," Hunley says. "It's a lot of bulk Champagne/bubbly put on the market and not nearly as interesting as a brut versus a demi-sec.")