Given a choice between a bottle of Champagne or a sparkling wine from any other corner of the world, most reasonably sane wine enthusiasts would opt for the Champagne. Of course, they would. It’s more expensive than other bubblies, so it must be better. That’s what the smart crowd thinks. Champagne’s unique station in the wine culture is so pervasive that even those who know better casually describe all sparkling wine as Champagne. For the record, only bubbly produced within the carefully drawn boundaries of the Champagne district in northeastern France can legally be sold as Champagne. Those boundaries are important because they are the main reason that Champagne is unique among the world’s sparkling wines and incredibly difficult to impersonate. Champagne wannabes abound. Italy and Spain have a few that come close. So does the United States, particularly in California. Even France has any number of bubblies, typically called …