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BY DAN FREDMAN PHOTOGRAPHY BY KRAFT WERK

I’ve always believed that Champagne and sparkling wine aren’t to be saved just for New Year’s Eve and special celebrations, but that wines with bubbles should be part of our daily lives. Every salesperson in every wine shop I’ve ventured into lately has at least a couple of bubbly wines at the top of their “must-try” list.

This brings us to Tracy Bogue and Club Bubbly. The proprietor of this diminutive outpost of effervescence in downtown SLO’s The Creamery, Bogue, a former distributor salesperson, is confirmation of how following one’s passion plays out in real life. The wines she offers are broad in scope and deep in vision, maximizing the use of the small space without patrons feeling crowded. Bogue calls her selection process “more of a feeling than following a formula.” She elaborates, “My goal is to focus on smaller producers who make their wine start to finish, from the fruit to the bottle. I only work with small production wines with interesting backstories. I can’t compete with Costco, but neither can they compete with what I have to offer here.”

“Education is what keeps me fascinated with the wine business,” says Bogue. I respect the discernment between Champagne and other sparklers—I’m not talking about good and better, but about different. It’s fun to see where people want to go with their bubbles, so I work within everyone’s budgets with no pretension involved. Every tasting I do is accompanied by however much education the patron might want. I just want people to enjoy themselves here, whether they’ve stopped in for a glass of wine, a tasting flight, or for a full-on education.”

Club Bubbly’s tasting flights usually consist of three two-ounce pours of different wines for $18, served in a natural progression. Wines by the glass are available too, and a lot of people stop in while waiting for a table nearby at Goshi. The makeup of the tasting list changes every couple of weeks, with many customers regularly stopping by to taste the new wines and picking up bottles to enjoy at home.

Were Club Bubbly only about the bubbles, it would still be a superb shop, but there is an eclectic wall of still wines to add to the vibe. The overall lineup of the shop would make a geographer envious: bottles of Pais from Chile, Sauvignon Blanc from Rueda, red blends from France mix nicely with the diverse selection of sparklers from Italy, Australia, Austria, the United Kingdom, California, and Oregon.

I asked Bogue for a few of her favorite bottles, and the first to spring to mind was the Charles le Bel Inspiration 1818 Brut, the second label of legendary Champagne grand marque Billecart-Salmon. The wine is blended from young vine fruit and juice that didn’t quite fit into the Billecart-Salmon main label. “It’s real-deal Champagne and it’s fresh and quite inspiring to pour for people. I’ve had a lot of customers come back and buy it again, and that’s the best indication that my patrons love a particular wine.“

Another popular choice that might be seen as maybe just a little unusual for a wine bar is the Leitz Eins Zwei Zero, an alcohol-free sparkling Riesling from Germany. The grapes are fermented before undergoing the vacuum distillation process that removes the alcohol, but leaves a striking Riesling >> character. This is an impeccably balanced, immensely tasty wine that goes great alongside mussels or fresh seafood. It’s available in cans, which are perfect in the summer. And, adds Bogue, “If you’re pregnant, observing a dry January, or are just don’t drink alcoholic beverages, being able to enjoy a glass of Eins Zwei Zero lets you be part of the fun with your group.”

“One of my favorite wines in the shop right now is the 2019 Summaroca Cava Brut Reserve. I think Cava, in general, is one of the best values in sparkling wine. It puts just as many smiles on faces as the French bubbles do, but it’s only about half the price.” Cava uses grapes like Macabeo, Xarel-lo, and Parellada in the French methode Champenoise winemaking process. It’s time consuming and labor-intensive to produce and it is an eminently pleasurable bottle of bubbles.

“For red wine lovers, it’s tough to beat the 2020 El Lugar Central Coast Pinot Noir. A blend of grapes from Greengate. Rincon, Bien Nacido, and Spanish Springs vineyards, it’s native fermented, spends eleven months in-barrel, and is quite elegant. It is what classic Central Coast Pinot Noir is supposed taste like.”

Bogue adds, “We’ve only been open since July and we’re still a work in progress. I may tweak the selection a little and I’m hoping to relaunch my Champagne club this year, so lovers of Champagne don’t need to drive to Club Bubbly to get their fix.”