Among the hottest items in the hipster world of wine are “grower” or “farmer” Champagnes, that is, Champagnes made by a person or family who also grew the grapes rather than bought the grapes from other sources. The contrast is between that bucolic, artisan’s ideal and the large, established firms that purchase tons of grapes (as well as using their own vineyards) and blend dozens if not hundreds of samples to achieve a recognizable and consistent house style. The grower Champagnes, on the other hand, should, theoretically, reflect a sense of individuality and specific place, though the number of experts who could decipher a region, much less a village or actual vineyard in a glass of Champagne must be rather small. I adore both styles of Champagne, the grower or farmer versions and the house-style of the big firms. To me it’s equally satisfying to open a bottle of Pol Roger Réserve Brut and know that it will be just like all the other bottles I have opened and enjoyed or to pour a glass of a grower Champagne and savor its individual qualities. You can tell if a Champagne was made by a grower if the initials RM appear somewhere on the front or back label; RM stands for Recoltant-Manipulant, literally, “harvester-maker.” You can see that imprint in tiny type at the bottom of this label for the Paul Bara Brut Réserve, my selection for the Fourth Day of Christmas, which is also, incidentally, Childermas or the Day of the Holy Innocents, referring to the children of Bethlehem under the age of two slaughtered by Herod’s soldiers.

The small house of Paul Bara lies in the village of Bouzy, the favorite place-name in all of winedom. In the World Encyclopedia of Champagne and Sparkling Wine (Wine Appreciation Guild, revised and updated edition, 2003), Tom Stevenson calls Paul Bara “one of Bouzy’s greatest Champagne growers.” I call the Paul Bara Brut Réserve “beautiful”; it’s a blend of 80 percent pinot noir and 20 percent chardonnay from Grand Cru vineyards. (Winemaker is Paul Bara’s daughter Chantale.) The color is pale straw gold; a great cloudy dither of bubbles streams forcefully to the surface. This offers real grip and power yet yields lovely generosity and delicacy of detail. Amazingly clean and fresh aromas of acacia, hay and sea-salt, cloves, roasted lemon and lime peel unfold to hints of freshly baked biscuits and almonds. Huge presence and tone, staggering acidity and limestone minerality make for a compelling, dense, chewy structure, while this tensile strength feels adorned by the shimmering tinsel of steel, lemon zest and pear nectar. Deeply savory, impeccably balanced, a seamless marriage of power and elegance. 12.5 percent alcohol. Excellent. About $45 to $50 nationwide, though I paid — ahem — $66 in the Bluff City, as Memphis is jocularly termed.

Imported by Kermit Lynch, Berkeley, Cal.

Remember that this series in “The Twelve Days of Christmas with Champagne and Sparkling Wine” focuses on the diversity of bubbly products made in various regions of France, as well as Champagne. The Third Day of Christmas, by the way, is also the feast day of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist, author, according to legend, of the book of Revelations, and of the Gospel and the three Letters we find under his name, all composed, we are told, in the worst Greek of the New Testament. Shoulda stayed in school, right? Anyway, our sparkling wine today originates in the Loire Valley, as did the example on Christmas Day, but instead of coming from Vouvray, this was made in Chinon, southwest of Vouvray and still in the Central Loire region. You won’t find the name “Chinon” on the label, however, because the rules of the appellation do not allow for sparkling wine; you can make a sparkler if you want, you just can’t label it or market it as being from Chinon.

Couly-Dutheil is a distinguished house in Chinon, founded in 1921 and still owned by the family, that makes a roster of wines from the red cabernet franc grape — only about two percent of the region’s wines are white — as well as a fine rosé and, it turns out, this “forbidden” sparkling wine with which I recently became acquainted. The Couly-Dutheil Brut de Franc, non-vintage, is billed as the only sparkling wine in the world made completely from cabernet franc grapes, and for all I know, this claim may be, if St. John does not mind my saying so, gospel. I certainly can’t think of another one. Do, though, track this down. The color of the Couly-Dutheil Brut de Franc is shimmering pale gold, and the bead, as the British term the stream of bubbles, is fine, energetic and frothy; the bouquet, well, the bouquet is a seductive weaving of blood oranges, peaches, red currants and sweet Asian spices, with a hint of rose petals. The wine is ripe and almost soft in the mouth yet imbued with tremendously vibrant acidity and a resonant limestone element, the combination of which lends the finish marked dryness and some high-toned austerity; it’s quite appealing and frankly delicious but with a moderately serious edge. 12.5 percent alcohol. Very Good+. About $21, though you see higher and lower prices around the country.

Imported by Frank-Lin International, San Jose, Cal. Tasted at a wholesaler’s trade event.

Here we are, Boxing Day, which features (or used to), in the United Kingdom and related countries, the post Christmas distribution of largesse to servants, customarily not one’s own but the servants of one’s friends. This is also the Feast of Saint Stephen — when the snow lay all about, deep and crisp and even — who was the first Christian martyr, stoned circa 35 AD for preaching that Christ was the Messiah and fulminating, rather impolitely, against the Jews; see Acts 7:51. December 26 is the first day of Kwanzaa, an African-American end-of-the-year festival devised in 1966 by Maulana Karenga, at the time chairman of Black Studies at California State University in Long Beach.

So, for this day, we turn to actual Champagne in the guise of the Comte Audoin de Dampierre Brut Cuvée des Ambassadeurs, a non-vintage blend of 50 percent chardonnay from Grand Cru vineyards and 50 percent pinot noir from Premier Cru vineyards. What does that mean? The vineyards of Champagne are rated village by village on a quality percentage system. Only the vineyards rated 100 percent receive Grand Cru status; vineyards rated between 90 and 99 percent are granted Premier Cru status. There are 17 Grand Cru villages and 43 Premier Cru villages. Labels on bottles of Champagne will often advertise the fact that the product is Grand Cru or Premier Cru, though realistically most Champagnes are blends of many vineyards and several vintages (which is what “non-vintage” means). A classification by individual vineyard rather than overall village would more accurately reflect true quality.

The Comte Audoin de Dampierre Brut Cuvée des Ambassadeurs — there really is such a person, as well-known for his collection of antique automobiles as for his Champagne — offers a radiant pale medium gold color and a surging, twining fountain of tiny bubbles. This is a substantial Champagne, generously proportioned and authoritative, yet a scintillating nervy line of keen acidity runs through and energizes it. Aromas hint at pear, jasmine and toasted almonds, with touches of fresh bread, smoky toffee and sea-salt and underneath a foundation of limestone and steel. This Champagne is spicier in the mouth, with notes of slightly macerated and roasted citrus flavors, but primarily it’s a vessel for conveying intense minerality and a dense, almost chewy texture, all leading to a long, vibrant, limestone-laced finish. 12.5 percent alcohol. I tasted the Comte Audoin de Dampierre Brut Cuvée des Ambassadeurs at a trade event and was impressed enough to purchase a bottle later. We consumed it throughout Christmas Day. Excellent. Prices around the country range from about $36 to $50.

Imported by Frank-Lin International, San Jose, Cal.

On Christmas Day 2011, let’s begin this series of Champagnes and sparkling wines with a product that’s not only charming but pretty darned complex and a bargain to boot. The emphasis this time around is on the diversity of French sparkling wines, and we’ll touch on several areas outside of iconic Champagne. The wine today is the Champalou Vouvray Brut, a nonvintage sparkler made from chenin blanc grapes, or as they’re called in the region, pineau de la Loire. Chenin blanc reigns supreme in the central Loire Valley, specifically the part called Touraine, after the city of Tours. The estate was founded in 1983 by Catherine and Didier Champalou, who make only about 12,000 cases of white wine annually, all from chenin blanc grapes.

The Champalou Vouvray Brut is made in what’s called méthode traditionelle, that is the champagne method of second fermentation in the bottle; that’s the step that produces the essential bubbles. (The term méthode champenoise, by the way, was outlawed for label use by the EU in 1994.) The Champalou Vouvray Brut is fermented in stainless steel tanks and allowed to rest on the lees of spent yeast cells; then it is transferred to bottles, given a dosage of yeast and sugar (to kick-start the second fermentation) and capped; it spends 20 months in bottles before being corked and released.

The color is shimmering pale gold; effervescence is mild but persistent. Heady aromas of almond and acacia, lemongrass and quince, with a touch of something earthy and straw-like, are tempered by a cut of steel and limestone. This is surprisingly creamy and substantial, almost luscious, but balanced by bright, crisp acidity and more of that clean, slightly austere limestone minerality to bolster flavors of roasted lemons and spiced pears; hints of candle-wax and camellia come out in the long, lively satisfying finish. 12.5 percent alcohol. Excellent, and Great Value at about $19 to $26, reflecting prices around the country.

Imported by Kermit Lynch, Berkeley, Cal. A sample for review.

… and that means I’m about to launch the annual “Twelve Days of Christmas with Champagne and Sparkling Wine” series. Traditionally, the twelve days of Christmas run from December 25, Christmas Day, to January 5, being Twelfth Night, the Eve of the Epiphany. Tomorrow, I will post the first sparkling, bubbly product and continue to post one each day, though I tend to include a wider selection on New Year’s Eve and Twelfth Night. This year’s series focuses on France, not only Champagne but such alternatives as Cremant de Bourgogne, Cremant de Loire and sparkling wines from other appellations. In the Champagne category, I’ll offer some choices from the established houses as well as from the smaller operations that grow the grapes and make artisan-style products, what we might call farmer Champagnes. As ever in this series, I do not repeat brands or labels from year to year; I have not written about any of the Champagnes or sparking wines included in this segment of “Twelve Days of Christmas” before. Now around the periphery, so to speak, of the “12 Days,” I’ll post about other sparkling wines and Champagnes, some of which I may have covered previously and some of which I have not; the point is, that from tomorrow through January 5, BTYH is all about bubbles.

Festive image from thebeehiveblog.net.

Why “The 12 Days of Christmas with Champagne and Sparkling Wine”?

For fun, of course. Because I love Champagne and sparkling wine in all their categorical imperatives. Because I adore certain kinds of old traditions, such as the sequence of 12 days that leads from the solemnity of Christmas to the revels of Twelfth Night — that’s tonight –and the Epiphany, the day, according to ancient beliefs, on which the Three Kings arrived at Bethlehem. (The Kings, or Wise Men, were my favorite Christmas characters.) Of course end of the old year/beginning of the new year festivities extend back in history to the Roman Saturnalia and other ceremonies, riotous or not, that celebrate the glimmer of longer days and the foretaste of the coming Spring.

My favorite comedy by Shakespeare is Twelfth Night; or What You Will (to give the full title), a play, written indeed as a Twelfth Night entertainment, that in its witty and touching chronicle of love and loss, mistaken identity and discovery, foolishness and wisdom, pomposity and common sense, malice and miracle exactly captures the spirit of an occasion on which, in Medieval and Renaissance England, people disguised themselves and indulged in fits of merrymaking, feasting, drinking and dancing.

Perhaps the connection of Twelfth Night and sparkling wine is tenuous, but, after all, sparkling wine and Champagne are without doubt the most festive of beverages, and in honor of that conceit, I offer a roster of sparkling wines from around the world that would be appropriate for many, perhaps all, occasions.

These wines were samples for review. Three Wise Men images from mcleananddeakin.com
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Lambrusco got a bad rep in the 1960s and ’70s with the ubiquitous “Chill a Cella” television ads. This essential wine of Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region, however, is bone-dry, not sweet and sticky, and made to match the rich, hearty indigenous cuisine. As a matter of fact, as I’m writing this entry about the Albinea Canali Ottocentonero, Lambrusco dell’Emilia, I’m sipping a glass of the deep purple/magenta/beet colored stuff with my quite savory and spicy cheese toast. Marked “Sept 2010″ on the back label, the Ottocentonero is lightly sparkling, what in Italy is called frizzante (as opposed to the full-sparkling spumante), a sort of pink tickle-and-tease. A gamay-ish nose of black currants and black cherries contains hints of bubble gum and roses and surprisingly dusty shale-like minerality. There’s a lightness of being here that belies the dark intensity of the wine’s color and broad spicy component, yet it’s well-balanced by ripe black fruit flavors, titillating acidity and a touch of astringency on the finish. Charming but with an obsidian edge. The grapes are 50 percent lambrusco salamino, 40 percent lambrusco grasparossa and 10 percent lancelotta. Very Good+. About $16.

VB Imports, Old Brookville, N.Y.
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The Col Vetoraz Valdobbiadene Prosecco Brut, marked 2009 on the back label, is a superior expression of the prosecco grape. The color is pale gold permeated by scads of tiny bubbles. Pop the cork, and you immediately smell apples, lemons and pears, followed by almond blossom, almond skin and a touch of orange zest. This is a very dry, crisp and steely prosecco whose exuberant effervescence makes for a lively and lovely quaff. Very Good+. About $16.

Imported by Montacastelli Selections, New York.
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The package on the Segura Viudas Brut Reserve Heredad Cava is so ludicrous that’s it’s almost sweet. With its elaborate pewter emblem and carved pewter base, the bottle looks like the Great Seal of the Duchy of Flabbergastan. On the other hand, this is an interesting expression of the Cava style of Spain’s Alt Penedes region. Composed of 67 percent macabeo and 33 percent parellada, traditional grapes for Cava, the first impressions are of a beautiful medium gold color, an absolute froth of bubbles and a sense of buoyancy. This is bright, fruity and savory, with an intriguing (or slightly odd) muscat/riesling-like petrol aroma wreathed with lime, lemon curd and jasmine. In the mouth, this sparkling wine is dry and crisp, smoky and steely, with a sort of dried fruit compote element before a limestone-laced, austere finish. Very Good+. About $25.

Imported by Friexenet USA, Sonoma, Cal.
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Australians have a fetish about sparkling shiraz, which I first tried in the Antipodes in 1998 and thought that it tasted like sparkling blood, not to put you off or anything. Indeed, there’s a meaty, beefy quality about sparkling shiraz that the Paringa Sparkling Shiraz 2008, South Australia, embodies handily. The color is, inevitably, very dark ruby-purple with a magenta rim; that darkness pretty much conceals the effervescence, though tiny purple bubbles gather at the wine’s rim in the glass, and of course you feel that liveliness and sort of brooding dynamism on your tongue. This is deep and rich, very spicy, packed with ripe, dusty, crepuscular black cherry and blackberry flavors that feel dense and fleshy; a few minutes in the glass bring up notes of walnuts and thyme. Still, the wine is neither heavy nor obvious, even managing to evince some delicacy of tone. It is very dry. No winsome aperitif sparkling wine, this demands food as large-framed as it is. Very Good+. About — ready? — $10, a Raving Bargain.

Imported by Quinessential, Napa, Cal.
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The Lucien Albrecht Blanc de Blancs Brut, Cremant d’Alsace, made from 100 percent pinot blanc grapes, is completely delightful. The color is pale straw; a flurry of tiny bubbles surges up to the surface, like a reverse snow dome. Aromas of apple and pear permeated by cloves and a hint of spiced peach are deftly circumscribed by elements of limestone and steel. Flavors of baked apple and roasted lemon circulate in the mouth, almost caressed by a supple texture that’s fleetly enlivened (and nicely balanced) by acidity of staggering crispness and cool limestone-like minerality. The entire effect is of purity, intensity, electricity and, ultimately, lovely elegance in temper and tone. Great stuff. Excellent. About $25.

Pasternak Wine Imports, Harrison, N.Y. Image from redwhiteandfood.blogspot.com

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Here’s another blanc de blancs, separated from Alsace by distance, style and grape variety. The Iron Horse Blanc de Blancs 2005, Green Valley, Sonoma County, is made from 100 percent chardonnay grapes, 35 percent of which go through barrel fermentation. The color is very pale shivery blond-gold; the surging gold-flecked bubbles are hypnotic. Yes, this evokes all the green apple and pear, limestone and steel one expects from a blanc de blancs, but adds flourishes of fresh biscuits and cookie dough, almond skin and almond blossom, with traces of roasted lemon and a distant waft of mango; sort of a thrilling bouquet. In the mouth, however, this sparkling wine is very dry, very crisp, very high-toned; a hint of roasted almonds and lightly buttered cinnamon toast bring a touch of winsomeness to the hauteur. I don’t mean the last sentence in a critical spirit; I love these Alpine sparkling wines and Champagnes and their aching sense of being above it all. Production was 1,550 cases. Excellent. About $40.
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I see that though I posted the “10th Day of Christmas” late last night, my clever computer posted it for today, so we have two Days of Christmas on Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2011. Let’s make the real 11th Day of Christmas a shout-out for Domaine Carneros, founded in California’s Carneros region, north of San Pablo Bay, in 1987 as a partnership between Champagne Taittinger and that venerable house’s American importer Kobrand. If you drive through Carneros up to Napa Valley, you can’t miss the winery’s splendid but, for the region, somewhat incongruous chateau, modeled after the Taittinger family’s 18th Century mansion in Champagne. Eileen Crane is the producer’s only winemaker. Naturally, these sparkling wines are made in the champagne method. The style here is light and vivacious, and the words “lovely” and “elegant” will show up often in these reviews.

We’ll look at three Domaine Carneros sparking wines. These were samples for review, a disclosure required by the FCC of bloggers but not print publications.
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The Domaine Carneros Brut Rosé 2006 offers a limpid medium copper-salmon color with a patina of tarnished silver; a fountain of tiny bubbles whirls upward in a rush. First, you get strawberry and red currants and a hint of spiced peach borne on a stream of cool, fresh, steely limestone. In the mouth, this Brut Rose delivers lovely presence and texture, with exquisite balance between bracing crispness and warm, almost luxurious creaminess. Subtle flavors of red raspberry and pomegranate are bolstered by limestone and shale minerality that’s like the leading edge of a cliff, though a cliff — to extend a metaphor — adorned with tiny white flowers of a spare and almost astringent reticence. A model of decorum and exhilaration. Excellent. About $36.
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The limited production Domaine Carneros Blanc de Noirs Brut 2006 is available only at the winery. The last time Eileen Crane made a blanc de noirs (“white from blacks”) was in 1991, so this was a rare occasion. The wine was made from 100 percent pinot noir grapes. The color is radiant pale gold, infused with an infinity of tiny silver-flecked bubbles. Freshly baked bread and biscuits, quince and pear with a hint of ginger characterize a beguiling bouquet packed with spice and limestone. Tremendously fresh, clean and bracing, this sparkling wine feels almost cloud-like in its lovely heft and presence, though it is scintillating with crisp acidity and a monumental mineral edge. Still, it remains deft, delicate and elegant, a finely tuned construct of delightful paradoxes. The finish is long, toasty and spicy, with a salt-marsh tang. A great achievement.
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Domaine Carneros Le Rêve Blanc de Blancs Brut 2004 is pretty damned dreamy, all right. Made completely from chardonnay grapes, this beauty sports a very pale gold-platinum blond color and a teeming fountain of tiny bubbles. The bouquet offers seamless aromas of yeast, freshly baked biscuits, orange zest and almond blossom and some dried floral element, like dusty acacia; it takes a few minutes for the limestone element to seep upward and twine itself with the other elements, and then follows a note of lemon curd. Yeah, it’s sort of delirious stuff yet gentle and nuanced, just as in the mouth the principle tone is suppleness, almost soft lushness, wedded to brisk, even nervous acidity; the effect is close to blithe with crystalline purity and intensity. There comes a point when one no longer says, “Ah, yes, this sparkling wine from California is a good alternative to Champagne, if you can’t get the real stuff.” No, Le Rêve 2004 is just a great sparkling wine; such comparisons are belittling. Exceptional. About $85.
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It’s a bit disconcerting to see marketing nicknames on the labels of a real Champagne made in the, you know, actual region of Champagne. Not that making and selling Champagne isn’t a business; of course marketing is called for, as in any other business. And of course there’s not a thing wrong with indicating the different types of Champagne you make with different colored capsules; that makes sense. To call the product by that color on the label, however, seems a trifle crass. I’m referring to the Heidsieck & Co. Monopole “Blue Top” Brut. One wonders if the marketing people behind this scheme hope that “Blue Top” will become a by-word, as in a guy sidles up to the bar and sings out, “Barkeep, pour me a slender flute of Blue Top!” And the bartender sings back, “Need a pop? Try Blue Top!” (My model is: “What’s the word? Thunderbird!”) Heidsieck Monopole also has a “Silver Top” (Brut Reserve), “Rose Top” (Brut Rosé), “Green Top” (Demi Sec), “Red Top” (Sec) and “Gold Top” (Vintage Brut).

Heidsieck & Co Monopole, Charles Heidsieck and Piper-Heidsieck all trace their origins to Florens-Louis Heidsieck, who established the company in 1785. I won’t delve into the multi-tangled history of the three houses and how they became separated by reasons of birth and marriage and other familial and non-familial relationships. It’s sufficient to say that Charles Heidsieck and Piper-Heidsieck are owned by Remy-Cointreau, while Heidsieck & Co. Monopole is owned by Vranken Pommery.

So, to the bottle in question.

I was skeptical, but gradually Heidsieck Monopole “Blue Top” Brut won me over. Pinot noir is the backbone of this house; the composition here is 70 percent pinot noir, 20 percent chardonnay and 10 percent pinot meunier. We’re not talking about utter refinement or elegance in this Champagne; rather, it makes its point by assertive substance and presence. The color is pale gold; seemingly billions of teeny-tiny bubbles course upward in a twisting fountain. The effect of “Blue Top” is very toasty and yeasty, and the bouquet offers notes of pears and roasted lemon, almond peel and almond blossom and a winsome note of honeysuckle and hazelnuts. Minerality comes right up behind, and in the mouth this crisp, dry Champagne practically balloons with crystalline acidity, rampant limestone and chalk and immense reserves of spice, as in spiced citrus flavors, spice cake and a final touch of grapefruit baked with brown sugar and cloves. No, this is not some shivery, silvery, ultra-blond sophisticate, but the sense of dynamism and earthiness that “Blue Top” conveys is definitely fun. Excellent. About $40 in my town but down-priced from $25 to $35 in cities all over our great nation.

Imported by Vranken Pommery America, New York. Tried once at a retailer’s tasting and once from a sample for review (not from the importer).

So, My Readers, here it is, Sunday afternoon, Jan. 2, 2011. It’s chilly but sunny in my neck o’ the woods. We had waffles for lunch; how decadent!

However, to the matter at hand.

The point of image you see to the right of this post is that each of these sparkling wines is made from the same combination of grapes, 58 percent chardonnay, 42 percent pinot noir. Why, then, the difference in color, one palest gold, the other pale copper? Because the palest gold one, the Graham Beck Brut, was made with the juice undergoing no skin contact with the pinot noir grapes, while the other, the Graham Beck Brut Rosé, was given enough skin contact to delicately color the juice. These sparkling wines are produced in the Western Cape region of South Africa.

The result is that the bouquet of the Graham Beck Brut is clean, fresh, steely, oceanic and invigorating; the bouquet of the Brut Rosé is filled with notes of lightly spiced and macerated strawberries and dried red currants, with hints of orange zest and toast. Give the Brut a few minutes, and it displays elements of roasted lemon and almond skin, with a hint of cloves and ginger. Both sparkling wines are spare, lean and elegant, though the Brut Rosé perhaps delivers a bit more body and heft. Both are quite dry, founded on crisp acidity that practically glitters and limestone-and-shale-like minerality. While neither offers fabulous detail and dimension, for the price they’re attractive, charming and certainly exhilarating. Very Good+ for each. About $15 to $18, Great Value.

Imported by Maritime Wine Trading Collective, San Francisco. Samples for review.

Yikes, only three most posts to go in this 2010/2011 edition of “Twelve Days of Christmas with Champagne and Sparkling Wine.”

That black bottle of Freixenet Cordon Negro Cava represents one of the most familiar sparkling wines in the world. It’s tasty, simple, accessible and cheap. I have no problem with that. But the company delivers more character and quality in its Elyssian Gran Cuvée Brut, which is made not only with two traditional indigenous grapes — macabeo (30%) and parellada (20%) — but with 40 percent chardonnay and 10 percent pinot noir. The chardonnay and pinot noir, used in sparkling wine the world over, including Champagne, lend Elyssian Gran Cuvée Brut a touch of elegance and presence often missing from other examples of Cava.

The color is pale, pale gold; bubbles are active, persistent and tiny, though a little fatter at the outside. Fetching aromas of hay, salt-marsh, ginger, cloves and almonds combine for an engagingly fresh, clean bouquet that takes on a hint of something exotic, slightly honeyed or spiced nectarine or mango. In the mouth, this is very dry, very crisp, teeming with notes of roasted lemon and peach, limestone and oyster shell, all devolving to a spicy, stony finish. Heaps of personality. Very Good+. About $18, a Great Value.

Imported by Freixenet USA, Sonoma Cal.