Wine review: Argyle Brut 2002

How much do I love this wine (and especially for Mother's Day)? Let me count the ways:

• It's half the price ($25 or so, available at Central Market) of all those over-hyped French champagnes. And those French wines are certainly not twice as good.

• Argyle, one of my favorite Oregon wineries, produces terroir-driven wines. That means it doesn't try to make something a certain way to get a high score, regardless of the weather, climate, soil, and the like. It allows those things to determine the character of the wine, and takes advantage of them to make the best wine possible.

• The wine has bubbles the way bubbles should be -- tight and racing to the top. This is not a given with every sparkler at this price, where they will sometimes be fat and lazy.

• It offers New World citrus fruit with a touch of yeasty, caramel flavor, instead of the reverse. This is much more food friendly than the reverse.

• Did I mention that it's half the price of those French wines?

• Mom will love it on Sunday. Pour this, chilled, with any brunch dish, like Eggs Benedict, French-style scrambled eggs, or even bagels and lox.