How to Cook with Champagne & Sparkling Wine

Champagne and sparkling wine are favorites for celebrating, but why stop at drinking them? They add a wonderful, subtle flavor to all kinds of recipes, and cooking is a great way to use up the last of a bottle after the bubbles have faded.

Your guide to cooking with champagne & sparkling wine

Sparkling wine works much like still wine in cooking, so you can use it in many of the same ways. It tends to bring a lighter, more delicate flavor, making it especially useful when you don’t want the wine to overpower the other ingredients in a dish.

You don’t need to open a new bottle, either. Leftover Champagne that’s gone flat is perfectly useful for cooking, provided it isn’t more than a week old, or the wine may start to oxidize and taste like vinegar.

My Does Champagne Go Bad? guide has more information on storing an open bottle and knowing when it’s past its prime.

If you’re new to cooking with wine in general, start with my How to Cook with Wine guide. Many of the same principles apply here, with a few considerations specific to sparkling wine.

What sparkling wine tastes like

The taste of sparkling wine is typically crisp and bright, with noticeable acidity and flavors that can range from citrus and green apple to pear, stone fruit, along with toast or brioche notes in some styles.

Sparkling wines range from dry to sweet. Dry refers to the wine’s sweetness level — a dry wine has little or no perceptible sweetness, while sweeter wines contain more residual sugar. Brut is a common dry style of sparkling wine, while extra dry is actually a little sweeter and demi-sec is sweeter still.

The style matters, too. Different sparkling wines can lean fruity, floral, yeasty or nutty, and some have more complexity than others. My Champagne 101 and Sparkling Wine 101 guides go deeper into the different styles and terminology.

What’s the difference? Champagne vs. Prosecco vs. Cava

Champagne, Prosecco and Cava are all sparkling wines, but they have slightly different flavor profiles.

Champagne, which comes from the Champagne region of France, often has citrus and apple flavors along with bread, toast or brioche notes. Prosecco, from Italy, tends to be fruitier and more floral, with flavors such as pear, apple and peach. Cava, from Spain, is typically crisp and citrusy and can have some of the bready or toasty character found in Champagne.

Those differences can carry over into a recipe, but all three can generally be used interchangeably in cooking. Pay more attention to the sweetness level. If a recipe calls for a dry sparkling wine, choose a dry Champagne, Prosecco or Cava rather than swapping in a sweeter bottle.

Best sparkling wine for cooking

For most recipes, choose a dry, inexpensive sparkling wine. There’s no reason to cook with a special bottle, but you still want something you enjoy the flavor of since that flavor will become part of the dish.

Look for an affordable brut Champagne, Prosecco, Cava or other dry sparkling wine. If the recipe is sweet, you have a little more flexibility and can choose a sweeter style when its flavor suits the dessert.

What happens when you cook with alcohol

Once heated, sparkling wine loses its carbonation and begins to reduce, concentrating its acidity and flavor much like still wine.

The alcohol also begins to evaporate as the food cooks, but it doesn’t necessarily disappear completely. How much remains depends on factors such as the cooking method, temperature and length of cooking time. In general, longer cooking gives the alcohol more time to evaporate.

That’s important if you’re cooking for someone who needs to avoid alcohol entirely. Cooking with Champagne or another sparkling wine shouldn’t automatically be treated as alcohol-free simply because the dish has been heated.

Freezing is a little different. Because alcohol has a lower freezing point than water, adding too much sparkling wine can keep frozen desserts from setting firmly. Recipes like sorbet and popsicles need the right proportion of alcohol to the other ingredients.

Substitutions

If a recipe calls for Champagne or another sparkling wine, a dry white wine is often a good substitute. Likewise, dry sparkling wine can stand in for still white wine in many recipes, though it may bring a lighter, more delicate flavor.

For more ideas on swapping spirits and wines in the kitchen, check out the other guides in my How to Cook With series, including How to Cook with Tequila, How to Cook with Bourbon and How to Cook With Vodka.

Recipes to cook with champagne

Here are a few ways to use sparkling wine in savory dishes, sweets, sauces and reductions.

Desserts & sweets

Sparkling wine is especially fun to use in desserts, where its fruitiness can complement a variety of sweet flavors. For something baked, try Champagne cupcakes, Champagne cake, pink Champagne cake or Champagne cookies.

For something cold, try Prosecco popsicles, Champagne sorbet or spritz sorbet. Just remember that alcohol affects freezing, so it’s best to follow the proportions in the recipe carefully.

Sparkling wine also works well in gelatin-based treats. Try Champagne jello shots, Champagne mousse or Champagne jelly. These are especially fun options for celebrations when you want to work sparkling wine into the menu.

Savory dishes

For a cozy appetizer, try this Champagne Swiss cheese fondue. Sparkling wine pairs naturally with melted cheese and brings acidity to the rich fondue.

Champagne chicken is another way to take sparkling wine in a savory direction, pairing it with chicken in a creamy sauce.

Sauces & reductions

Use sparkling wine to deglaze a pan or create a flavorful reduction for chicken breasts, seafood or vegetables.

After cooking with olive oil or butter, pour in the sparkling wine and stir to loosen the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Let the wine simmer and reduce, then add ingredients like shallots, garlic, cream or tomato paste and season with salt and pepper as needed.

Sparkling wine can also bring acidity and subtle fruitiness to dressings. Try it in a Champagne vinaigrette for salads, roasted vegetables or other savory dishes.

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