L.A. WINELINE IT'S ALL LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION.

Byline: Larry Lipson

When you buy a bottle of champagne or port, do you care if the bubbly is from Champagne and the port from Oporto?

In other words, do you prefer real champagne from France and real port from Portugal?

And do you tend to buy wine from Napa?

Is Sonoma equal, more desirable or lower on your wine preference chart?

How about burgundy from Burgundy and chablis from Chablis?

And do the Maipo and Mendoza valleys in South America mean something when it comes to picking up a bottle of wine these days?

Well, wouldn't you know it. A national survey by the newly founded Center for Wine Origins has determined that a wine's location is more important to American consumers than the price, the brand and even the retailer's recommendations.

According to Shannon Hunt, director of the center, ``This survey showed that 57 percent of Americans believe where a wine comes from is one of the single most-important issues in choosing a wine.''

So if you're one of the remaining 43 percent, get ready for a campaign to change your attitude.

Funded by groups representing Portuguese port producers and French champagne producers, as well as the European Union, the center's ``location matters'' campaign will run for three years.

And the sherry people from Spain will join the campaign in 2006.

It's a turnaround. Remember in years past, the Spanish actually called their brandy cognac.

Not anymore. Trade laws, stronger than those recently passed here, took care of such misleading origin names.

But the question remains.

What should we call California port if we can't name it port?

BIDDING, IMBIBING: Serious wine collectors will pay $100 to taste samples of classic bordeaux, rare burgundies and ``exciting'' California wines with appetizers and cheeses at Valentino, 3115 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica on Nov. 3.

This is a pre-event sampling of wines in the large Nov. 18 and 19 auction by Hart Davis Hart Wine Co. in Chicago.

A five-course, prix-fixe dinner ($100) follows the 7 to 8:30 p.m. tasting. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own wines.

Tasting and auction details: [phone] or hdhwine.com. Post-tasting Valentino dinner reservations: [phone].

SIPS & NIBBLES: Winner of three Best of Class awards at the 2005 Sonoma County Harvest Fair went to Imagery Estate Winery for its 2002 merlot, 2003 barbera and 2003 sangiovese. Information: [phone] or www.imagerywinery.com. ... Actor Jeff Bridges will sign labels of the 2000 Ledson meritage bottling at a fundraiser at the Sonoma winery, 7335 Sonoma Highway, Kenwood, on Oct. 29. Information: [phone] or www.ledson.com. ... The Wine Institute tells us that there are more than 60,000 registered California wine labels, that chardonnay with 96,500 acres is still the most planted grape in California, that there are 44 million bubbles in a bottle of sparkling wine, that it takes six to eight clusters or 600 to 800 wine grapes (2.4 pounds) to make a bottle of wine, that wine is fat-free, has no cholesterol and a 4-ounce glass possesses about 80 to 100 calories.

Larry Lipson, [phone]

larry.lipson(at)dailynews.com