Champagne for entertainment

Terms of engagement: Put a French wine lover in a room with a California wine lover and tell them to talk about Champagne and they will soon be at each other’s taste buds, arguing that Champagne and California sparkling wine cannot be compared, contrasted or even mentioned in the same breath. Let’s burst their bubbles — the differences between excellent French Champagnes and excellent California sparkling wines are so slight that few wine experts can tell the differences in a blind tasting of several wines on the table.