Why is it that Champagne and indeed all sparkling wines seem to be reserved for special occasions?

There is a bit of a festival atmosphere to the ritualistic foil/wire-hood/cork removal process, along with the audible pop and explosion of bubbles when the liquid hits a dry glass. So I suppose that creates its own little party.

But sparkling wine has a superb raison d'etre, and a most mundane one it is: It makes food taste better.

All of the discussion about what wine goes with lasagna and what's the best food to go with Sauvignon Blanc is valid for those who fret over the nuances of taste. But dry sparkling wine has an affinity for many kinds of foods.

The fact that we toast weddings, births and graduations with the stuff obscures the fact that at its heart, dry sparkling wine has good acidity, and it is the acidity that helps to bring out flavors in most foods.

Champagne and its cousins are so intriguing in part because they run counter to today's bigger-is-better trend in red and white wines.

The bubblies tend to be (a) delicate in aroma and taste, and (b) lower in alcohol than most table wines — and alcohol can be a bit of a challenge to many foods.

The driest of bubblies also can be expanded and broadened by time — either time on the dead yeast cells while still in the bottle (called "en triage" in France) or simply by aging the wine "on the cork," as they say, in cool conditions.

The former process, in which the spent yeast creates complexity inside the bottle, is one of the reasons that high-caliber sparkling wines and especially real Champagne can cost so much: They take years to make.

To make a great sparkling wine, you need grapes that are perfectly matched to the soil and climate, preferably colder climates where acid levels remain high.

Demand for Champagne has been rising in the last three years, and now the French agency that controls how Champagne is made, the INAO (Institut National des Appellations d'Origine), says it will increase the official Champagne district by about 10 percent to meet demand.

A law dating back to the late 19th century said that real Champagne may only come from 370 official villages in northeastern France.

Great demand, notably from emerging nations, has prompted 40 more French towns to be added to the Champagne district.

In California, high-caliber sparkling wine is made by only a dozen or so wineries, most of them based in colder regions to take advantage of the excellent acid levels so necessary for top-rate bubbly.

Among the most popular such wines are those called brut, which ostensibly refers to a dry wine. Yet almost all bubblies get a small amount of sugar just before the cork seals it up. This sugar addition (the "dosage") helps to make the wine just rich enough so the stuff doesn't remove tonsils non-surgically.

Another trend of late: the arrival of Brut Rose wines, sparkling pink wines that have more body than whites.

With June fast arriving and celebrations afoot, a lot of bubbly will be bought for festivities. Give it a go, I say.

But don't forget that when the hurrahs are over, the better bubbles offer a sublime liquid to enhance most any dish.

Wine of the Week: Non-vintage Mumm Napa, Napa Valley ($19) — Light, elegant aroma of fruit from Chardonnay, but with a delicate spice element in the nose and a crisp yet still succulent taste to make the dinner table complete. Recent sweepstakes winner at the 27th annual Riverside International Wine Competition.

Dan Berger resides in Sonoma County, Calif. Berger publishes a weekly newsletter on wine and can be reached at danberger@VintageExperiences.com. To find out more about Dan Berger and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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