I popped open that bottle of Dragon Seal, the Chinese Brut, over the weekend. Jenny and Vicki were coming over for some Asian grub, and being crazy for California sparklings, I wanted to see what they thought of it.

I still love Cali bubbles too, but I’m coming into Champagne more, craving complexity and fine mousse in my flute.

The 100 percent Chardonnay made everyone happy, I thought. Super light yellow in color, it had enough toast in the nose for me and citrus and honey for them. It was a round wine, especially at only $12.99 (Wine Styles), and had a decent finish.

The French vines are cultivated in China’s Huailai appellation in the Heibei Province of North East China, an area with an 800-year tradition of making wine. Huailai is 80 kilometers northwest of Beijing and close to the Great Wall. The altitude of the vineyards range between 490 meters up to 615 meters above sea level.

Made in the traditional method, the wine undergoes a second fermentation in the bottles for about eight weeks. It goes through another minimum of nine months in the bottle before disgorging.

Dragon Seal produces 30,000 bottles of this stuff and it’s won everything from the Chardonnay of the World Silver Medal in France in 2005 to the 1999 Challenge International de Vin Bordeaux, where it picked up a bronze medal. Get a bottle. It won’t rock your world but it’s good.