HOLIDAY BUBBLY
High-spirited holiday season calls for champagne - but which ones?
BY LINDSEY WHIPPLE

Exploding with the force of volcanic eruption is the recent development of the newly established AVA in Northern California called High Valley located in Lake County. Lake County is east of Mendocino County, northeast of Sonoma, and north of Napa County; therefore it is contiguous with famous wine regions, not to mention its well-drained rolling hills of volcanic soil, great for red grapes, and the heavy clay from former lake bottoms, ideal for white grapes. 
All champagne lovers, including myself, know that vintage champagne is the most interesting and expressive champagne to drink during the high-spirited holiday season. But what vintages and champagne houses are the most intriguing and worthy of a memorable holiday and champagne experience?

The small and unique champagne house, Krug, located in the city of Reims, France in Champagne only produces vintage champagne from exceptional vintages that best express the character of the grapes, which of course are selected from the best grand cru vineyards in champagne. The 1990 vintage was an exceptional year because the longer growing season produced a rare second flowering on the vines making up for the lost unfavorable grapes in early seasonal frosts.

Since, there is no precise formula to the beauty of Krug's champagne, the memory of the original taste has been passed on, intact, from generation to generation in the Krug family. Today, both 5th and 6th generations supervise directly every phase of production, tasting and blending at Krug.

The Krug 1990 Brut Champagne has fine bubbles that carry its distinctive flavors and aromas of spicy peach, honey and hazelnut notes through out the taster's body.

Deemed the best vintage of the 20th century, the 1996 vintage of any champagne house will be honest. Unlike so many vintages in the first half of the 1990s, the harvest was not spoiled by rain. There was heavy rain in early August, but the perfect ripening conditions in September saved the vintage.

A fine and eclectic champagne to pick up from this vintage is the Billecart-Salmon 1996 Millesime Cuvee Nicolas-Francois Brut. Billecart-Salmon is located in the village of Mareuil-sur-Ay, and sources its grapes from many of champagne's grand cru vineyards. This is a family-owned winery that has been around since King Louis the XIII. The Billecart family prides itself in producing limited amounts of quality champagne.

The 1996 Billecart-Salmon Millesime Brut is light and crisp champagne with a violent frizz. It is bone dry with sparkling peachy, tangerine flavors and aroma with hints of buttered toast. It's a great age-worthy champagne.

The perfect example of how talented and wonderful a small champagne house outside of the grand cru vineyard sites can be with vintage champagne is the champagne house of Chartogne-taillet. Chartogne-taillet is located outside the city of Reims in the town of Merfy.

Located in the Montagne De Reims wine region in champagne, Chartogne-taillet produces silky, effective effervescent, classically yet meticulously made champagne that can hang with the greats, such as, vintage Dom Perignon and Roeder Cristal.

One of these champagnes is their vintage 1999 Cuvee Fiacre Taillet. This champagne is the most glamorous Chartogne-Taillet champagne produced, due to the fact, that the 1999 vintage was considered a post-millennium top-up vintage, and the champagne is 60 percent Chardonnay and 40 percent Pinot Noir, a blend from old vines. The Fiacre has a delightful creamy apricot mouse in the mouth with sweet blossom hints in the nose. LW