This year's New Year's resolution: drink Champagne!

What bubbly are you drinking when the ball drops this year? Champagne, perhaps?

Most people would say yes, but while they probably are drinking a sparkling wine, they may not actually drinking Champagne.

So what's the difference? You may be expecting a bunch of wine lingo here, but the distinction is actually very simple: all Champagne is sparkling wine, but not all sparkling wine is Champagne. Sparkling wine is exactly what it sounds like: wine with bubbles. Champagne, on the other hand, is a geographic region in France, more or less due east of Paris, famous for making sparkling wines (a small amount of still wine is made there, too, but we'll ignore that for now).

But sparkling wine is made all over the world--in just about every country where wine is made--and a lot of it can be very good. What's more, it is often much less expensive than real Champagne. (One of the unfortunate side-effects of Champagne's world renown has been its frequently inflated prices.)

I get plenty of requests in the store for "Champagne," and most of the time, the person is really just looking for an inexpensive sparkling wine. A lot of people make this mistake, and you shouldn't be embarrassed if you have yourself. It's a common misunderstanding (and pretty trivial, really), and we're used to it in the wine business. But this NYE, sneak a peak at the label of whatever bottle your friends pop open--it may be the most delicious sparkler you've ever had, but if it's not from France and doesn't say "Champagne" on the label, it isn't Champagne.