Best Champagne for New Year's Eve

Four bottles for midnight, from a crowd-pleaser to a once-a-decade pour

New Year's Eve is the one night when nearly everyone drinks Champagne, which makes it the night most people buy it badly — grabbing whatever is cold at the store at 9pm. A little planning goes a long way. A 750ml bottle fills about six flutes, so one bottle covers six guests for the midnight toast alone; if Champagne is the drink of the whole party, plan on a bottle for every two or three people. Chill it for at least three hours in the fridge, or 20–30 minutes in a bucket of ice and water (ice alone is much slower). Open it by holding the cork still and turning the bottle, not the cork, so it releases with a sigh rather than a bang. And pour into a tulip-shaped or white-wine glass if you can: a wide coupe looks festive but lets the bubbles and aroma escape in minutes. These are the four bottles our panel would open.