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If your holiday soundtrack involves the sounds of bottles popping and glasses clinking, you\u2019ve come to the right post. Sparkling wine is practically the official drink of New Year\u2019s Eve (if not the entire month of December) \u2014 and yes that includes low<\/a>\u2013 and non-alcoholic<\/a> varieties as well. Those Wednesday morning meetings aren\u2019t going to run themselves \u2026 yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n While many of us would love nothing more than to toast the season with fancy bubbly from now through the ball drop, that\u2019s not exactly the most economical (or realistic!) way to spend our hard-earned dollars. Enter: Sam\u2019s Club.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n On a recent trip to The Club \u2014 via a Real-Housewives-esque party bus \u2014\u00a0I learned a lot<\/em> about its Member\u2019s Mark Champagne Didier Dumond Brut (aka the warehouse\u2019s store-brand bottle of bubbly). The team, according to the Sam\u2019s Club IG<\/a>, \u201cpartnered with a family of winemakers with over 100 years of experience, and did multiple tastings\u201d before landing on the bubbly in this bottle, which launched in October 2021.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n If you\u2019re thinking hey, that bottle looks familiar,<\/em> then you\u2019d be correct. The Champagne<\/a> bottle is strikingly similar to a name-brand favorite, from the gold-foiled wrapping down to the yellow-orange label.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n There is one very big distinction: the price tag. At the time I visited, the Member\u2019s Mark Champagne was $19.98, compared to $59.48 for the name-brand bottle. That\u2019s roughly a third of the price.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Of course, that discount means nothing if the Champagne itself is anything less than stellar. So I did what almost any grocery editor with a store credit courtesy of Sam\u2019s Club would do; I grabbed a bottle of each and headed for checkout. The following week I brought both to our office Friendsgiving and asked coworkers to take part in a blind tasting comparing the two. What happened next was pleasantly surprising.<\/p>\n After chilling both bottles in the same fridge for the same amount of time, I popped them open and poured the Champagne into a mix of unmarked flutes and coupes. Several people leapt at the chance to drink free Champagne \u2014 the best kind. (Where were many of you when canned pumpkin<\/a> came around?!)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Tasters took one glass from each group and sampled them one after the other. In addition to asking tasters to describe each of the Champagnes, and what they liked (or didn\u2019t) about them, they had to guess which was the Sam\u2019s Club brand and which was the $$$ bottle. It wasn\u2019t long before the glasses were empty and the results were in.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Nearly half of the tasters thought the Member\u2019s Mark Champagne Didier Dumond Brut was actually the more expensive bottle. \u201cI was convinced I could tell the difference between the two Champagne options,\u201d says Cullen, our Home Associate Editor, \u201cbut I was SO wrong.\u201d She thinks \u201cboth Champagnes have an elevated taste,\u201d and even ended up mixing the two together. (She wasn\u2019t the only one either.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Even the tasters who correctly matched the Champagnes to their bottles were impressed with the budget-friendly alt: \u201cI really do like them both!,\u201d says Camey. \u201cI\u2019d definitely bring the less expensive one to an event if I know people aren\u2019t wine snobs.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n While Tom, a former bartender and our current Studio Producer\/margarita-ologist<\/a>, feels the pricier pick is \u201ca bit more complex\u201d with \u201ca familiar taste of toast that can come with high-end Champagnes,\u201d he also likes that Sam\u2019s is \u201csimple and light.\u201d Adding, \u201cI would happily buy either.\u201d<\/p>\n