(SFChronicle) - California sparkling wine lives in the shadow of Champagne. That famous French region has defined the standards for our domestic practitioners, not least because many of those domestic practitioners — including Domaine Carneros, Domaine Chandon and Roederer Estate — are owned by Champagne companies.

The ideal here has always been to create wines that, like the best Champagnes, are bracingly bubbly, tense in their pressure, with rich flavors like buttered brioche and hazelnut.