Price: $9

Producer: Charles de Fére

Origin: France

Type of wine: Sparkling white wine made from Chardonnay

Try it with: Goat cheese, green salad with toasted walnuts and dried cherries, sweet & sour Asian dishes

Date Reviewed: June 2004

This is the ‘blue light special’ of French sparkling wine. At under ten dollars, this bubbly will cause you zero buyer’s remorse. Pale gold in color, Tradition, offers a simple, but interesting scent of bread-dough coupled with fruity scents of green apples and pears. The flavor is also quite simple: crisp, tart and mildly fruity. This is a well-balanced, value-priced bubbly that will jazz up Monday night’s dinner.