A case full of choices for New Year's bubbly

Jon Bonné Lifestyle editor • Profile

With the exception of a romantic blip in February, sparkling wine's selling season is essentially one month long — and we’re smack in the middle of the frenzy right now.

After all, Champagne and its siblings are celebration wines, and this is a celebration time of year.  Retailers are flooding the shelves with their best stuff right now and prices are being slashed, so it’s time for savvy bubbly lovers to buy in bulk. Stock up for the coming months.

I’ve visited the topic of the bubbles several times in 2005, so on the verge of the new year, here’s a good opportunity to recap some top picks and buying strategies.

1) Know your audience: Are you popping corks at an intimate dinner party or will you be passing the bottle through the crowd as you huddle to watch fireworks?

There are sparklers made for every circumstance and budget, so don’t overdo it.  If your friends are all about Fritos and onion dip, you probably can skip the vintage Krug and uncork a nice $8 bottle of Spanish cava. (Unless that onion dip is spiked with osetra caviar.)

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As a rule of thumb, it’s worth saving true Champagne for a small party of good friends or maybe a romantic evening for two. Social graces be damned:  If you’re gathering with a crowd, you’ll cringe watching random strangers help themselves to your bottle of Piper-Hiedsieck like it was ginger ale — unless you’re Jay-Z, in which case, let the Cristal flow.

Plenty of good bubbles fall into the “party wine” category, whose primary virtue is that it tastes more expensive than it is.

2) The big names: More than any other wine region, Champagne has leveraged the marketing power (and cash) of its biggest corporate citizens. As a result, few good wines have as much brand presence and prestige. If you're in the game to impress your hosts or guests, these are the wines for you.

But fame and quality are two different things.  Major Champagne houses craft their workhorse wines to fit well-established house styles, attempting to ensure that their end product tastes the same from batch to batch, year to year. (Attempting, but not always achieving, as I explained recently.) Some are delightful; others are duds.

Among major labels, I'll stick by my September recommendations for wedding Champagnes. These non-vintage efforts vary in their styles, but all should please: Gosset brut (Palm Bay Imports, $32);  Pol Roger brut Réserve (Frederick Wildman & Sons, $32); Deutz brut Classic (Maisons Marques & Domaines , $32); and Nicolas Feuillatte brut (Pasternak Wine Imports, $24).

On the other end, continuing to hold the worst value-for-money record I can find is Veuve Clicquot’s ubiquitous “Yellow Label” Brut (Clicquot Inc., $35) — not particularly a bad Champagne, but absolutely not worth the money and floating on a sea of promotional fizz.

3) The indie scene: Grower Champagnes, so called because they’re made by individual winegrowers rather than a large winery that buys much of its grapes, are still the most exhilarating sector of the Champagne business.

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They may not always reach the heights (or consistency) of the top names, but they’re usually a great value and always a special treat — doubly so at a holiday party, where an obscure bottle of bubbly can itself become a conversation starter. (Take note of that, single folks.)

Two grower Champagnes from our fall tasting stood out as truly exceptional: the Egly-Ouriet brut Tradition (North Berkeley Imports, $37) and Franck Bonville brut blanc de bancs (Premier Wine Company, $24), and I’ll add two others to the list: the Larmandier-Bernier brut Premier Cru “Vertus” (Mickael Skurnik Wines, $32) and the Launois brut blanc de blancs Cuvée Reserve (Premier Wine Co., $26). The Launois was on my Dec. 13 list of 10 most-coveted wines for 2005.

And how do you tell a grower Champagne from the big boys?  Each bottle of Champagne comes with a code stamped on the the front label in tiny print.  Grower Champagnes begin with an “RM” (or more rarely an “SR”), while larger houses use an “NM.” It can be tough to find outside major cities, but part of the fun is in the hunt.

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