Champagne and Sparkling Wine: Méthode champenoise Wines

Excellent vintage-dated, estate-bottled méthode champenoise wines are made, in the early 2000s, by American-owned Iron Horse in the Green Valley of Sonoma County. The artisan Milla Handley in the Anderson Valley of Mendocino also makes fine sparklers. Schramsberg of Napa Valley used to label at least some of their fine wines as “Napa Valley Champagne.” The late Jack Davies, who with his wife, Jamie, founded Schramsberg in 1965 as the first sparkling-wine producer in the Napa Valley, originally created the label to needle the neighboring French interlopers.