Champagne substitutes

Dry sparkling wines made by the same bottle-fermented method, one from Spain and one from France outside Champagne.

Best for

mimosas and cocktails, sabayon and zabaglione, pan sauces, poaching and steaming shellfish

The closest substitutes that exist, and usually a third of the price. Both go through the same second fermentation in the bottle, which is where Champagne's yeasty, bready, toasted-bread character comes from, so a cava sabayon or a cava mimosa tastes recognisably like the real thing. Cava tends to be a little more citrus-peel and almond and slightly firmer in acid; Cremant, particularly from Alsace, Loire or Burgundy, is a shade rounder and softer. Buy the bottle labelled brut and you are within a hair of Champagne for cooking purposes. In a mimosa or a French 75 nobody will pick it out.

Italian sparkling wine made in a tank rather than the bottle, the most widely stocked fizz in most supermarkets.

Best for

mimosas and bellinis, spritzes and punch, light pan sauces, everyday cooking

A good stand-in with one difference worth knowing. Because it is fermented in a pressure tank rather than in the bottle, it never develops that bready Champagne character, and it tastes instead of pear, green apple and white flowers. Most prosecco also carries more residual sugar, so a mimosa made with it reads noticeably sweeter and a reduced pan sauce comes out rounder and a touch syrupy. Fix both the same way: use a bit less juice in the drink, or add a squeeze of lemon to the sauce. Look for brut on the label rather than extra dry, which confusingly is the sweeter of the two.

Any crisp unoaked white: sauvignon blanc, pinot grigio, picpoul, dry riesling or unoaked chardonnay.

Best for

risotto, mussels and clams, pan sauces and beurre blanc, braising chicken and fish

For any dish that gets heated this is a complete substitute, not a compromise, and it is worth understanding why. The carbonation is gone within seconds of the wine hitting a hot pan, so it plays no role whatsoever in the finished risotto, sauce or braise. What Champagne is contributing is acidity, a small amount of fruit and alcohol to carry aroma, and a still dry white brings all three. The only real difference is that Champagne is unusually high in acid, so a still wine can taste slightly rounder: a squeeze of lemon at the end restores the edge. Avoid heavily oaked whites, which push vanilla and butter notes into a sauce that should taste clean.

The alcohol-free option that keeps both the bubbles and the pale colour.

Best for

alcohol-free mimosas, celebration drinks, cooking for children, light glazes

Genuinely good for a non-alcoholic mimosa or a celebratory toast, and workable in a cooked sauce. The problem is sugar: grape juice carries far more of it than brut Champagne, so straight out of the bottle it tastes like fizzy dessert. Lemon juice pulls it back toward dryness, and a splash of white wine vinegar does the same in a savoury sauce. What you cannot recover is the alcohol, which dissolves and carries aroma in a way water does not, so a juice-based pan sauce tastes flatter and more one-note, and a juice sabayon will taste of grape rather than wine. In a reduction, be ready for it to catch and caramelise sooner than wine would.

The savoury alcohol-free route for anything that ends up as a sauce or a braise.

Best for

savoury pan sauces, braises, steaming shellfish, risotto

This is the swap that works best in real cooking, because it gets the acidity and the liquid volume right without adding sweetness. What changes is the register of the dish: broth makes everything rounder, meatier and saltier where wine makes it brighter and slightly fruity. Two adjustments matter. Hold back the recipe's salt until you have tasted, since broth brings its own and reducing it concentrates it hard. And add the lemon juice at the end rather than the start, because long cooking dulls it. Do not try this one in a sabayon or a Champagne granita, where the wine is the flavour you are eating.

The honest case: dishes where you are tasting the wine itself.

Best for

knowing when not to substitute, sabayon, granita and sorbet, wine jellies

In a Champagne sabayon, a Champagne granita or sorbet, a Champagne jelly, or a glass of anything, the wine is not seasoning the dish, it is the dish. There is no non-alcoholic version of those recipes that tastes like the original, and broth or juice will not carry it. If you cannot use sparkling wine, the least bad options are a dry cava or prosecco if the objection is only to Champagne's price, or a different dessert altogether if the objection is to alcohol. Also worth knowing for a granita: the alcohol is what keeps it from freezing into a solid block, so a juice version needs scraping every half hour with a fork.