Champagne is the queen of sparkling wines, but she is a jealous monarch. She admits no pretenders to her realm. Cava, prosecco, California bubbles? They all have their moments when made well, but they’ll never be Champagne, no matter what promotions for party brunches might say.
The Champagne crown is worn only by wines produced according to the Champagne method in the Champagne region of France from grapes grown within the region. All that sparkles is not Champagne.
“She holds her crown high,” Kat Thomas, lead sommelier for Ada’s Food + Wine, says of Champagne.
“The reason Champagne is so special is that it goes through an extra stage of development from still wine,” Thomas continues. “It starts a secondary fermentation in the bottle. When they release the cork, all those bubbles start to escape that were waiting and trapped inside that bottle. It really is a grace-under-pressure kind of moment.”
Champagne is the sip of celebration, as the approaching holidays remind us. As a holiday preview, we’re sharing five spots in Las Vegas to slip into the most beautiful of bubbles.
Ada’s Food + Wine
For the past two years, Ada’s — which is set to move in December from Tivoli Village to the old Esther’s Kitchen space on South Casino Center Boulevard downtown — has won the Most Original Wine List category at the World’s Best Wine List Awards presented by The World of Fine Wine in London. Thomas creates the wine lists for Ada’s.
“Champagne is always the answer,” assures that list. By the glass, there’s Charles Heidsieck Brut Réserve, with desirably fine bubbles, creamy mouthfeel, subtle fruit and a long finish ($35).
For the desert island, Thomas would want a bottle of Bérêche & Fils Brut Réserve. The grapes are farmed using organic methods, yielding fruit that produces a bright, crisp Champagne, with hits of lemon and green apple leading to a silky palate. At $170, it might be a splurge, but it is the holidays.
In Tivoli Village
Le Club by Partage
Le Club lies next door to Partage, its French fine dining sibling in Chinatown Vegas. Le Club, a Champagne bar, offers one of the finest Champagne lists in the city — multiple releases from about three dozen houses.
There are big names in bubbles like Krug and Perrier-Jouët, but also lesser-known (at least in the U.S.) pours like Canard-Duchêne, named for the couple (Victor Canard and Léonie Duchêne) who founded the house in the late 1860s, and Mandois, a certified-organic estate still family-owned house after almost 300 years.
Pair the Champagne (or Champagne cocktails) with oysters from the raw bar, cheese or charcuterie boards, or savory dishes like escargots, steak tartare or a smoked salmon mille-feuille with citrus cream. Champagnes run $15 to $30 by the flute and $80 to $800 by the bottle.
3823 Spring Mountain Road
Krug Chef’s Table at Guy Savoy
This experience, in a private area of the restaurant — one of only two Vegas restaurants to have been awarded a Michelin star — is billed as the only Krug Chef’s Table in the U.S. Champagne Krug is globally celebrated for its rich, deep, nutty, complex flavor. The six-seat Chef’s Table affords guests an intimate view of the kitchen, where executive chef Nicolas Costagliola creates a special 10-course seasonal tasting menu that is paired with a flute of Krug for the first course and one for dessert.
The Chef’s Table may be booked for two to six guests, with a single booking per day for seating that begins anytime from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Cost: $800 per person; caesars.com.
In Caesars Palace
Liam’s Den & Bubble Bar
The Champagne Is King flight at Liam’s offers Ayala Brut Majeur, a blend of 70 crus; Collery Extra Brut Grand Cru, a golden column of energetic bubbles mingling minerality and floral notes; and Tattinger Brut Réserve, blended from more than 35 vineyards. Cost: $55.
Bubbles by the Bottle features more than a dozen brut and rosé releases, including Devaux Cuvée Rosé, redolent with raspberry and rose petals and nicely priced at $75, and, going big with bubbles, the 2013 Dom Perignon that deftly balances a backbone of acidity with a full body. Cost: $750.
In The Venetian
The Golden Experience at Tamba
Last December, Tamba reopened in sleek new digs at Town Square after operating for more than 20 years in a much more modest space up Las Vegas Boulevard. In 2025, the Las Vegas Review-Journal named Tamba one of the Top 100 restaurants in Vegas for its distinctively modern take on Indian cooking.
The Golden Experience features lobster green curry — poached lobster tail, green coconut masala, Mexican chile, coriander-mint purée, hand-ground coastal Indian spices — served with an ounce of The Only Oscietra Caviar. The curry and caviar are paired with a bottle of 2011 Thiénot La Vigne aux Gamins Blanc de Blancs Millésime.
This Champagne, toasty with a seam of citrus, is produced from a single vineyard of old-vine chardonnay grapes. The Champagne links arms beautifully with the aromatic richness of the curry and the briny pop of the caviar. Cost: $500 for two. The Golden Experience is offered nightly beginning at 5 p.m. in December.
In Town Square ◆
Contact Johnathan L. Wright at jwright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @JLWTaste on Instagram.
