Wine Time: Biltmore Estate Blanc de Blancs

COST: $25

WHAT: Nothing gets me in a holiday mood faster than a good, sparkling wine, and this is a very good one, a party in a bottle. Only wine made in the Champagne region of France can be called Champagne, but Biltmore sparklers are made the French way. They hold their own with the best.

The grapes are 100 percent Chardonnay, but they are grown in California's Russian River Valley. Biltmore has other sparkling wines made with North Carolina grapes.

The wine is crisp, with high acidity. It has a spicy aroma with strawberry and lemon tastes. The finish is clean and tart. The pretty pale-yellow color shows off the tiny bubbles. It's made in the traditional Champagne way, with a secondary fermentation in the bottle. The wine spends 18 to 24 months in the bottle before disgorging and final corking.

This is a brut, which means it is slightly drier than sparkling wines. Serve it chilled, about 40-45 degrees.

THE WINERY: Vines were planted in the mountains of Asheville, N.C., in 1971, and the winery opened at the Biltmore Estate in 1985. The winery is in the estate's former dairy barn, designed by Richard Morris Hunt, the architect of the Biltmore House

GOES WITH: We had it with our Thanksgiving turkey. There couldn't be a better match. It covered all the complex tastes of a holiday meal: turkey, dressing, dumplings and sauerkraut, cranberry relish, mashed potatoes and gravy, vegetables and dessert. I also had the wine with tacos and nachos, and it was a nice, soothing alternative to the hot spices. It would be good with crawfish etouffee, or fish, oysters and soft cheeses.

Reach Dennis Sodomka at dennis@bottlereport.com. Read his column on choosing wines for the holidays in the November-December Augusta Magazine.