Champagne for Valentine's Day

Champagne is champagne only if it comes from Champagne. Otherwise, it must be called "sparkling wine" or prepend the geographic location of it's provenance such as "California champagne". However, "sparkling wine" can be made using the traditional method known as methode champenoise, where the carbon dioxide that creates the bubbles comes from a second fermentation in the bottle. If the bubbles come from artificial carbonation, the product cannot even be called "sparkling wine". Buyer beware!
There is an apocryphal story around the 1660s, that attributes the creation of champagne to a Benedictine monk named Dom Pérignon who was cellar master at the Abbey of Hautvilliers. Dom Pérignon was keenly aware that oxygen was the ruin of a good wine so he experimented with many different closures including olive oil film, rolled up grape leaves and then eventually cork. By using cork, the carbon dioxide that usually escaped through the oil film and grape leaves remained in the wine. Upon tasting this wine, Dom Pérignon remarked, "I am drinking stars!"¹ The production of sparkling wine begins with a base wine, called the cuvee. This is a low alcohol wine (9-11%), with moderately high acidity (7-9 grams/Liter) that is fermented to dryness. The grapes used in making champagne are Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay. Since the grapes are picked when the ^oBrix is between 18-20, there is very little varietal flavor associated with the base cuvee regardless of which grape it is made from. Sparkling wines made entirely from Chardonnay are sometimes called “blanc de blances” (literally “white from whites”), while those made entirely from red grapes are sometimes called “blanc de noirs” (“white from blacks”).
A really good reference for making champagne can be found here: 2.10 Making Sparkling Wine (Methode Champenoise). Champagne bottles come in various sizes and they all have a name which I found to be very interesting. I've lifted the following photo of champagnes from that site:

• 1. Quarter or Piccolo    187 ml
• 2. Half-bottle                 375 ml
• 3. Standard Bottle         750 ml
• 4. Magnum                    1.5 liters
• 5. Jeroboam                  3 liters
• 6. Rehoboam                4.5 liters
• 7. Methusaleh                6 liters
• 8. Salmanazar               9 liters
• 9. Balthazar                 12 liters
• 10. Nebuchadnezzar   15 liters

Wishing you a happy, bubbly, Valentine!
Reference:
1. Frederick S. Wildman, Jr., "A Wine Tour of France", William Morrow & Company, Inc., New York, 1972, pg. 38-39.