For countless Americans, the word champagne will always call to mind two things: New Year's Eve parties and New Year's Day hangovers.
In the more innocent days of the 1950s, 1960s and into the 1970s, before this country began to take such matters as alcoholism and drunk driving seriously, it was virtually a social duty to get pig-kissing drunk on New Year's Eve. And champagne -- or at least the fizzy stuff we called champagne -- became the poison of choice for millions of people who hardly touched wine the rest of the year.
Oh how it was sloshed about! Nothing livened up the party so much as shaking the champagne before opening it -- sending the cork hurtling like shrapnel as the wine exploded out of the bottle like Old Faithful.
People drank it out of anything -- even that horrible wide-mouthed vessel that people called a champagne glass even though it was better suited for a chihuahua's water bowl. And they poured it down their gullets as if it were beer, a beverage with about one-quarter of the alcohol.
No wonder Jan. 1 became known as much for misery as for bowl games.
Old traditions die hard in some places, and if you are among those who insist upon celebrating in the old manner, the only advice this wine column can offer is to buy cheap stuff (Cook's, FTC Andre, J. Roget) and have a friend hide the car keys.
Many of us have worn our last lamp shade, however. Mass inebriation has lost its appeal.
But that doesn't mean we've decided to go to bed at 10:30 New Year's Eve. Celebration -- with special people or that one special person -- isstill appropriate.
Champagne still has its place at these occasions. The difference now is that we drink less and taste more. And since we're not spraying it around like clowns with seltzer bottles, we can afford to serve champagne that doesn't taste like carbonated insecticide.
Best of Champagne
At one time it would have been accurate to say there's no substitute for true French champagne. That's no longer the case. There are substitutes and they're in many cases excellent.
Still the finest champagnes offer a level of refinement that sometimes justifies their lofty price tags -- which start at about $20 and proceed to the stratosphere.
Among the exorbitantly priced luxury cuvees of Champagne, the best known is Dom Perignon from Moet & Chandon. The currently available 1985 is a fine bottle of wine, but it's not the best Champagne has to offer. Krug, whether vintage or non vintage, and Bollinger R.D. consistently achieve an even higher pinnacle of complexity.
Among the more sensibly priced nonvintage brut champagnes, the names you can rely on include the widely distributed Bollinger, Louis Roederer, Charles Heidsieck, Veuve Clicquot, Pol Roger, Laurent-Perrier, Perrier-Jouet and Charbaut. Excellent but less frequently seen producers include Jacquesson, Billecart-Salmon, Delamotte, J. Lassalle, Bruno Paillard and Joseph Perrier.
Champagne has its share of underachievers as well. Except for Dom Perignon, Moet & Chandon is an indifferent performer. G. H. Mumm, once a reliable producer, is in the midst of an appalling slump in quality.
California
It's hard to believe that only a decade ago, connoisseurs looked down on California sparkling wine as barely fit for consumption.
To say they have improved is a massive understatement.
In some cases, California sparkling wine operations have eclipsed the champagne houses that founded them. While G. H. Mumm has faltered in France, the wines of Mumm Napa Valley have come on strong. Recently it released a luxury cuvee called DVX that is one of the finest sparkling wines ever made in California.
Domaine Chandon, the first offspring of a champagne house to settle in the Napa Valley, is also capable of producing wines that put its parent, Moet & Chandon, to shame. Especially impressive is the vastly improved Domaine Chandon Blanc de Noirs, now a spectacular value at about $14.
Some champagne houses are doing a wonderful job in both hemispheres. Roederer Estate, which continues to make the case that Medocino County's Anderson Valley is a great sparkling wine region, is a credit to its noble pere, Louis Roederer.
Perhaps the most exciting recent addition is Maison Deutz, which chose to locate in the cool south-central coast near San Luis Obispo. With an excellent brut and blanc de noirs and a gorgeous 1990 Brut Reserve, this child of the house of Deutz has joined the elite of California sparkling wine producers.
But you don't need a Champagne connection to make great California sparkling wine. Such stellar performers as Scharffenberger, Iron Horse, Tribault and Kalin are producing wines that are every bit as fine as champagnes that cost 50 percent to 100 percent more.
Other regions
The finest value in the world of sparkling wine, with nothing else even close, is Domaine Ste. Michelle Brut from Washington state.
It's not a great sparkling wine, but it's a good one -- made by the costly traditional method. What's amazing is that it costs less than $10 -- as low as $6.50 during some particularly aggressive sales. That puts an elegant New Year's Eve within the reach of even a cash-strapped graduate student.
If you are a particularly devoted Marylander, you can be proud to serve Boordy Vineyards Blanc de Blanc (about $15, though in short supply). It's not the best you can get for the price, but it
shows you can extract a creditable bubbly out of the rolling hills of Baltimore County.
The sparkling wines of Champagne are so famous that you would think they were the only ones in France, but that's not so. Fine examples are made in Bourgogne (Burgundy), the Loire Valley and in Alsace. Of these, the best I've encountered recently is Pierre Sparr's Cremant d'Alsace -- the equivalent of a fine nonvintage brut for only $14.
Spanish sparkling wines, called cava, have the virtue of low price tags but they are often marred by excessively earthy flavors that rob them of any elegance. Paul Chenau and Mont Marcal are two that manage to avoid this flaw.
The list could go on and on. Italy, Australia, New York, Oregon, Virginia, Germany all produce bubbly -- much of it surprisingly fine.
So the range of choices for an elegant, restrained but still celebratory New Year's is wide and deep. Just remember not to shake the bottle.