I think the Veuve Cliquot Yellow Label (generic) is a good "jug" champagne. I also don't mind Pol Roger...has a white label and I get it from the local bottle shop for about $35.

You beat me to it. (Both of 'em!)

Gosset

No matter which cuvee(?), I always enjoy champagne from this house.

(I used to believe I hated wine of all kinds until an encounter with Gosset in my late teens converted me - it was my gateway into the world of the vine)

It may be just out of your range as it's a £30-£35 a bottle and upwards champagne - which is why I couldn't consider it for my wedding reception.)

Just remembered - I did see it a couple of years ago for around 5,000yen in Osaka which brought into your price bracket.

It is widely available, although not from 'everywhere' - but you did say you wanted to stock up for special occasions.

In my experience a good Spanish cava is just as palatable as most average champagnes at a fraction of the price.
Although if push came to shove I'd always go for a Pol Roger.

Yes! There are some great Cavas out there for about $20/bottle -- excellent "bargain" bubbly.

UNITED959 and Showbizguru

There are an awful lot of Cavas on the international market nowadays, a few are on the astringent side.

Which Cavas do you recommend?

I like Taittinger.

I do not like Veuve (seems like a house that does excellent marketing but not as good wine-making!), but of course YMMV as everyone's tastebuds are different. :)

Some of the supermarket house cava is very good -and around s fiver a bottle.
I've always liked the Co-op but Tesco also do an excellent vintage cava.

My favourites are from small, independent producers. If you are based in Germany, you could easily visit them to stock up and they might deliver at a reasonable price within nearby EU countries:

Bardy-Chauffert (www.champagne-bardy-chauffert.com/)
Harlin Pere & Fils (not sure of contact details)

Their champagnes are a lot less expensive than mainstream houses (about 11-15 euros a bottle). We've got a stash of 7-8 euro half bottles, which are great to share to celebrate - just about anything (end of the work week, remembering the correct use of the imparfait and the passé composé, etc, getting the laundry done, etc).

We also like Gosset and Pieper Heidisieck (somewhat less than Gosset).

We have had a lot of fun tasting and stocking up on independent vignerons' wines (including champagnes) at various Salons des Vignerons Independants, held at different times and places in France throughout the year. It is well worth planning a trip around a regional salon (e.g. for Champagne) or the two large salons held in Paris each year (in November and March). Tastings are free, and there are hundreds of exhibitors. We also went to a great champagne tasting in Paris last December at Lavinia. Lavinia offers a membership card (15 euros per year), which gets you a 5% discount on most wines every day, 10% on the first Thursday of every month and, most importantly, invitations (free for 2 people) to 4 blockbuster tastings each year, one of which is the pre-Christmas champagne tasting. We got to taste somewhere in the range of 12 different, major houses' champagnes at last year's event. Again, if live in France or in a nearby country, it's worth signing up and planning a trip around the event.

I agree completely with this.

I needed to get a lot of champagne for my wedding and popped over to France especially. We were incredibly fortunate to receive an excellent recommendation and came back with several boxes of:

De Blemond Premier Crus Blanc de Blancs from the Cuis region (Champagne) - under 15Euros a bottle and superior (in my view) to many more expensive blended champagnes. Creamy, dry without being astringent and with lemony honeyed tones... lovely! And a huge hit (no abandoned undrunk glasses left around - and there were PLENTY of alternatives available)

I learnt a bit about blanc de blancs champagnes - they come from one grape variety (chardonnay) and tend to have a more 'individual' taste than the blends.

Keep an eye out for blanc de blancs and grab a bottle if you see any from any independant producers from the champagne region - you may get a lovely surprise! All cavas are made solely from white grape varieties and kind of approximate 'blanc de blancs' - one of the reasons that they are so popular, especially at the lower end of the market.

The grape variety 'chardonnay' has only recently been used to make certain cavas. Although the 'champagne method' is used, the grape varieties are quite different to those used in France and can ensure that cavas vary by quite a degree. I'm not a fan of most of the UK Supermarket cavas (although I occasionally get an unexpected surprise).

My Cava recommendations are:

Marques de Gelida - Brut Exclusive
Juve y Camps - reserve

And here is where I get to trumpet my part of Spain
Dominio de la Vega - which produces fantastic Valencian cava (sometimes marketed under the name 'Añacal')
I was given a couple of bottles of their Brut Reserva Especial (the one with a yellow label) - very, VERY nice :)

All of these should be in the OP's price range. And all are so much better than the usual Tesco plonk;)

Deutz for Champagne. I don't do Vin Mousseaux

Oy! :p

I second this. Spanish cava beats everything hands down.

Again, which ones?

Much as the Spanish part of my ego feels engorged and flattered by this wave of endoresment, I can't help but feel a little insulted that Cava is merely viewed as some homogenous straw coloured liquid of non-variable and uniform quality. It's not just vin mousseaux (fizzy wine)

For instance, out of my recommendations:

Dominio de la Vega - a blend of Macabeo 80% & Chardonnay 20%

Juve y Camps - a blend of Macabeu, Xarello & Parellada

Marques de Gelida - a blend of Macabeo 35%, Xarel-lo 30%, Parellada 20% & Chardonnay 15%

you can imagine that they're quite different, and that's without taking into account the earth and the geography.

Anyway, rant over, just please don't say 'Cava' as if it doesn't matter which one.

For Champagne, Trouillard NV and Duval Le Roy NV are pretty darned good. Both are very dry, crisp, with good notes of florals and a hearty dose of minerals on the finish.
Nicolas Feuillate is also nice if you don't want to drop more than 25$