champagne in a beer-budget world

JEAN-FRANÇOIS MERIEAU BULLES ($24) FRANCE>

TheChampagne and sparkling wine business is in tatters, and that’s not good news as we approach the most bubbly time of year. Sales, thanks to the recession, are down, and it’s so bad for the French (who produce the only sparkling wine that is allowed to be called Champagne) that they’re drastically cutting production in an attempt to keep prices up.

Throw in the weak dollar, which has raised the cost of imported wine as much as 20 percent over the last year, and it’s difficult to find a bargain even among those sparkling wines that always been a bargain. And it’s even more ficult to find interesting sparkling wines that are a bargain.

Nevertheless, there are still some out there, and these three are interesting and reasonably affordable:

This

French wine not made in the Champagne region is a nice alternative to inexpensive Spanish sparklers like Cristalino. It has lots of chardonnay fruit and good acidity.

This is another French wine, from the Loire, that offers value and something other than the ordinary sparkling wine. It’s made mostly of chenin blanc, as opposed to chardonnay, which means it’s dry and not quite as apple-y. This is one of the most interesting sparkling wines I tasted this year.

ThisCalifornia wine has a touch of caramel, good, dark pinot fruit and lively acid. I was a little surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did.

—JEFF SIEGEL

JEFFSIEGEL’S WEEKLY WINE REVIEWS appear every Wednesday on the Advocate Back Talk blog, advocatemag.com/lakewood/blog.