WINELINE WHAT BUBBLES TO THE TOP AMONG SPARKLERS.

Byline: LARRY LIPSON

The great majority of the sparkling wine sales each year occur between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve.

So it was appropriate recently to taste 10 famous bubblies, among them five of France's best champagnes and five well-regarded Californian sparklers.

It was a blind tasting; the bottles were bagged so that tasters couldn't identify them by label.

All were current releases found in better wine shops, liquor stores and supermarkets.

The tasting, sponsored by Wally's, which was rated the top wine shop in L.A. by Zagat, and Schramsberg, a Napa Valley sparkling wine producer, took place at the Hotel Bel-Air.

The 28 serious tasters had one sheet for both ranking and tasting notes to keep and one for a 1-to-10 ranking to turn in.

I liked the sparkler in flute A enough to rank it third, noting that it was yeasty, with some age, a tad darker than most of the others, and probably a true French champagne. I also wrote, ``My kind of bubbly.''

It turned out to be a '97 Bollinger La Grande Annee ($120). And its final ranking was a poor sixth.

The tasters had ranked the bubblies all over the map, with at least one first place for each label.

Schramsberg, we discovered, had two entries. So did Roederer, with its most famous French champagne and its top-of-the-line Californian.

Co-sponsor Schramsberg ended up with both a best- and a worst-ranked sparkler. Its 2000 Schramsberg Reserve ($80), the youngest of all 10 tasted, came out No. 1.

I ranked it second on my ballot, noting it as toasty with butterscotch flavors.

Yet the '99 J. Schram ($90), Schramsberg's top-level entry and my pick for sixth, came in ninth, tied for last place with the '98 Perrier-Jouet Fleur de Champagne ($125), which I had rated fourth.

My No. 1 pick -- to which I attributed all the best characteristics of a fine grand marque champagne -- truly was a champagne of the first order, Veuve Clicquot's '96 Grande Dame ($145).

But the other tasters didn't agree. It came in eighth.

My No. 8, Mumm's '99 DVX ($47) from California, came in third, and my ninth choice, Roederer Estate L'Ermitage ($40), also Californian, was voted second best.

Fourth was its ultra-expensive cousin, '99 Roederer Cristal ($300) from Champagne, which tied with California's '99 Domaine Carneros Le Reve ($45).

And the '98 Dom Perignon ($150), which I had ranked No. 10, wound up in seventh place.

Yet it was revealed that at a similar tasting in San Francisco recently, this same Dom Perignon won top ranking.

It shows us all how different palates like different styles and vintages of sparkling wine, regardless of awards, price, status or nationality.

Information: Wally's: [phone] or www.wallywine.com; Schramsberg: [phone] or www.schramsberg.com.

NEW RELEASES: With its new policy of limited production and higher quality, Gundlach Bundschu has released two of its 2004 Rhinefarm Vineyard, Sonoma Valley, reds -- a merlot ($29) and a pinot noir ($32). Information: [phone] or www.gunbun.com. ... Washington state's Covey Run offers a 21.4 percent residual sugar, 2005 reserve semillon ice wine ($22) for the sweet-toothed. Information: www.coveyrun.com. ... From Shannon Ridge in Lake County, Calif., come five reds and two whites. The reds are four 2005s, a petite sirah ($27), a syrah ($19), a barbera ($19), a blend called Wrangler Red ($14) and a 2003 zinfandel ($19). The whites, both 20005s, are a sauvignon blanc ($15) and a viognier ($18), the latter the only non-Lake County wine. Information: [phone] or www.

shannonridge.com. ... The 2004 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon ($50) from ZD will hit shelves Dec. 1. Information: [phone] or www.zdwines.com.

BROTHERLY: The Mondavi brothers, Robert and Peter, unite at last. They will appear in February at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival in Miami to present a 2004 Ancora Una Volta cabernet sauvignon. It's their first combined wine effort since they both worked together at their family's Charles Krug Winery in the 1960s. Festival information: www.sobewineandfoodfest.com.

Larry Lipson, [phone]

[e-mail]

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