Joy of bubbly

Published 4:00 am Tuesday, December 28, 2004

”Come quickly, I am tasting stars.” Judging by his exclamation, Dom Pierre Perignon, a French monk and 17th-century abbey cellarmaster, must have been a happy guy after happening upon and tasting naturally sparkling wine for the first time.

Champagne has been the life of the party ever since.

Perignon had that initial encounter with the bubbly quite by accident. According to champagnemagic.com, most wine of that era was consumed early in its life, but when it was shipped abroad in casks, warm weather often set off a secondary fermentation, which produced the natural carbonation. The giddy monk set out to consistently capture the ”stars” in a bottle.

Millions of revelers can’t be wrong. Dom Perignon went on to make good with this champagne thing.

What is this ebullient libation that’s prompted no lack of embroidered rhetoric through the years, and why is it singularly associated with achievement and celebration?

And how can you become a sparkling wine insider between now and New Year’s Eve?

”It’s a tradition of hundreds of years, celebrating with champagne,” said Greg Delgado, wine manager at Bend’s west side Safeway. ”The effervescence is what makes it popular for celebrations.”

And the effervescence is what sets it apart from wine.

First, a primer.

Champagne is the northernmost winemaking region in France and only bottles from there can bear the name champagne. The rest is sparkling wine, which has come into its own from places such as Northern California, Spain, Australia, Italy and Oregon.

Champagne and all good sparkling wines from other regions are produced using the method Champenoise, which takes a still wine and puts it through secondary fermentation in the bottle.

According to Jon Richards, wine steward at Ray’s Food Place in Bend, the wine is bottled, infused with a small amount of yeast and capped. After being placed in a riddling rack, a person called a riddler turns the bottle ever-so-slightly on a periodic basis. When the process is finished, the yeast has done it’s job ,the dead cells are removed and sweetening is added.

The result is a heady concoction with a lot of fizzy pizazz.

Inexpensive sparkling wine is often made using the bulk process, in which carbonation is added.

Champagne is typically crafted with pinot noir, pinot meunier and chardonnay grapes, Richards explained.

Non-vintage champagnes and sparklers employ different blends of grapes from different years. Vintage bottles use a pressing of grapes from a single year. The best vintages can be very expensive.

Prestige cuvees, according to damngoodwine.com, are within a category deemed the ”best of the best.” They’re made only in vintage years, are aged longer and cost lots of money.

Champagnes and sparkling wines are also produced in very dry (brut), extra dry (a little sweeter), sec (medium sweet) , demi-sec (sweet) and doux (very sweet). Brut is the least sweet and most popular.

A visit to a well-stocked wine shop can be daunting. Champagnes and sparkling wines beckon with their elegant labeling and seductive bottles. But the best way to tell what’s inside if you’re not well versed on all the nuances is to read the wine reviews often provided in the display or consult the wine steward.

”You can get enjoyment out of any level of bubbles,” said Richards.

That said, he added, ”most people will say that there’s a superior quality level in general with Champagne wines than those from other places.”

While a $10 bottle of non-vintage brut from Australia can be good and fill the celebratory bill quite well, the $100 bottle of vintage Dom Perignon is going to elicit oohs and ahs, especially among savvy bubble-heads.

”Bubbles is probably the most festive thing man has come up with yet,” said Richards. ”It’s playful in the glass. It pops and sparkles. Every time there’s cause to celebrate, it’s bubbles.”

The bubbles are more than an aesthetic touch, however. Carbonation is thought to act as an accelerant in the system, hastening the ”buzz” that alcohol can produce.

Richards counsels caution and responsibility when celebrating the holidays. When he hosts a gathering, he takes each driver’s keys when they come in the door. And he ”has fun” creating the test that will allow them to get the keys back.

”Don’t hesitate to call a cab,” Richards said. ”That’s what friends are all about.”