Champagne

Champagne maintains the strictest production rules in France, mandating a second fermentation in bottle for a minimum 15 months; its fizz accounts for 30% of all French wine exports by value despite covering just 3% of vineyard area. The 2014 vintage produced 320 million bottles, and top houses like Krug offer 18-year-aged cuvées that outperform #4 Rhone Valley's sparkling Cremant by a margin of 8 points in critical reviews. Only grapes from this 34,000-hectare northeastern region can legally bear the Champagne name.