In the same manner that
malt whisky must be from
Scotland in order to be called
scotch, any
bubbly,
effervescent wine must come from the
Champagne region of
France in order to be called "champagne". This is not to say that sparkling wines are automatically
inferior, they're just not
French. For instance,
Argyle Winery in
Dundee, OR regularly produces world-class sparkling wines with the same grapes and through the same methods that would allow them to be called champagne had they been created elsewhere.
What makes champagne/sparkling wine so sparkly is the addition of a secondary batch of sugars to
still wine that is already fermenting, which gives the existing yeast enough food to produce
carbon dioxide bubbles. This procedure, known as
Méthode Champenoise, produces tiny, long-lasting bubbles that are superior to other methods of
carbonation.