Champagne showdown: you might be surprised

PHOTO SPECIAL TO FLORIDA WEEKLY BY GARTH FRANCIS A competitive blind tasting held last week in Naples was attended by about thirty of the top buyers, restaurant owners and sommeliers in Southwest Florida. It pitted Champagne against sparkling wine. A sparkling wine from California topped its French cousins. If you've been thinking about buying some vintage Champagne this holiday season you just might want to reconsider that before smartly snapping your Platinum Amex down on the wine shop's counter.

A competitive blind tasting held last week in Naples, sponsored by Schramsberg Vineyards, and attended by about thirty of the top buyers, restaurant owners and sommeliers in Southwest Florida, sought to challenge a lingering and pesky perception that Champagne is better than sparkling wine.

Or, more specifically that vintage Schramsberg, a sparkling wine made with grapes sourced from cool-climate vineyards in California, and made in the same way as Champagne, (méthode champenoise), could be judged alongside the finest tête de cuvées France has to offer.

With the bottles tightly wrapped in brown paper tied up with string and their identities hidden, would we be able to put aside our bias - and the influence of powerful branding - to select the sparkler that we simply like best?

Brad Lewis a managing partner at Parrot Key Caribbean Grill on Fort Myers Beach attended the tasting and expressed real surprise - both at the overall outcome of the votes and his own individual rankings.

"I've never been to this type of tasting before," he said. "Usually at these events you taste wines from an individual portfolio. To be able to compare and contrast all these Champagnes, then go back and try them again has been a real eye-opener."

All the vintage top-of-the-pops were represented: Roederer Cristal, Perrier-Jouët, Krug Grande Cuvée, Dom Pérignon, Taittinger Comtes Blanc, and a Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame '96 (which garnered a spectacular 95 points from Robert Parker.)

Spoiler alert: The Veuve didn't score well with the experts here, and was ranked dead last. Surprising? I thought so. Still, I only ranked it third.

But before I tell you the winner, why would Hugh Davies who runs Schramsberg Vineyards, want to host these expensive tothe trade tastings around the nation?

Hugh is one of those pleasant looking, scrubbed and soft-spoken types you'd find reading scientific journals in the library. He's also exceedingly polite, the kind of guy your parents hope you'll marry. But unless you take a second look you'd miss a strong inner core of determination with a don'tcross me underpinning.

"Robert Parker has never reviewed our wines," he says simply. "That hurts us economically." Mr. Davies who was born in 1965, the same year as his parents founded the winery, said he's sent Parker samples of Schramsberg sparkling wines.

"By doing these tastings I hope to dispel the myth that only French Champagne tastes great," Davies says with some conviction.

According to the experts from around here, and in similar tastings Davies has hosted in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, he has accomplished his goal. The Schramsberg 2000 Reserve, a rich, Pinot Noir-focused sparkler, was ranked number one overall. The J. Schram 2000, named for founder, Jacob Schram, took third place. And who came in second, you ask? The Louis Roederer Cristal 2000.

How's that for a showdown? - Rose O'Dell King of Fort Myers is a wine judge and trained sommelier who holds a degree from the French Culinary Institute. She welcomes questions or comments at RoseODellKing@gmail.com