Night of 10,000 bubbles

You first saw her at Jay-Z’s side in the rapper’s “Show Me What You Got” video last fall. Then her graceful curves and sparkling finery started appearing at A-list events all over the country: the Mayweather/De La Hoya after-party at Tao Las Vegas, Barry Bonds’ record-setting home run celebration in San Francisco, the Beckham’s celebrity-studded welcome party in L.A.

She’s Armand de Brignac, the new “It” girl of the Champagne world: a $300 bubbly in a gold-plated bottle originally designed by Andre Courreges. Not bad for a brand that didn’t hit the market until 12 months ago.

“Our sales of Armand de Brignac are rivaling Cristal,” said Christian Navarro, a partner at Wally’s Wines in Brentwood. “So they’ve managed to shortcut 150 years of traditional marketing.”

In case you hadn’t heard, Cristal, once the pour of choice for rappers, players and anyone celebrating their king of bling status, is persona non grata in the hip-hop world -- kicked to the curb like so much Cold Duck, after Jay-Z issued a boycott in 2006 after being offended by comments from the Louis Roederer Champagne house’s Frederic Rouzaud.

Like the car you drive or the watch you wear, the bottle of bubbly you reach for Monday night to ring in 2008 is the kind of label that speaks volumes about who you are -- and how you want to be seen. It’s as much about style as the buckle on your Burberry and the logo on your Louis Vuitton -- a fact that’s not lost on the Champagne houses, which have abandoned selling what’s in their bottles in favor of creating a mystique surrounding it.

In the derby to claim Cristal’s crown as the toast of the town, the “Ace of Spades” -- as Armand de Brignac has been nicknamed, because of the insignia on the bottle -- seems to have come out on top. After cameos in two more Jay-Z videos (and another in a video by Fabolous), it turned up in Academy Award nominee gift bags and has been selling well at several exclusive L.A. wine purveyors.

But in Hollywood, as in fashion, the jockeying to be the “It” Champagne never really ends -- even for the centuries-old houses that can name-drop the likes of Czar Alexander II and Marie Antoinette or are the tipple of choice at official post-Oscar fetes.

If you’re keeping score, it’s Laurent-Perrier that’s poured at the Oscars and the Emmys, Moet & Chandon that has been a fixture at the Golden Globes for more than a decade (as well as sponsoring a handful of fashion weeks around the globe) and Piper-Heidsieck that holds court at Cannes.

Michelle Rowell, Champagne brand manger for Piper’s distributor Remy-Cointreau USA, said that’s because it fits with the profile. “Each Champagne has a personality,” she said. “We’re an insouciant, fun brand, and we like to find ways to take the stuffiness out of the Champagne experience.”

So, what does the Champagne you’re pouring say about you?

Dana Farner, beverage director at Wolfgang Puck’s Cut restaurant in Beverly Hills, said that most of the restaurant’s popular Champagnes by the glass are price-driven. “When someone wants to come in and show the people they’re with that they’re there to have a good time, the bottle to impress remains Dom,” she said. “It’s the one that most of all says, ‘I’m here to take care of you tonight.’ ”

Kell Wimmer, beverage director for the Dolce Group, which includes Hollywood restaurants Dolce Enoteca, Les Deux and Geisha House, said Dom Perignon and Cristal remain the major players -- especially at Les Deux (which is having a Dom-sponsored New Year’s Eve bash). “It’s so price-point driven. If they want to be a rock star and they want to be a baller, they’ll go right for the more expensive ones such as Cristal or Dom. We have a guy who has a challenge with our GM at Les Deux. We typically run 30 to 40 bottles and he’ll buy us out. He usually wins that bet.”

Event planner Bryan Rabin of Rabin Rodgers, which has thrown some of the city’s classiest fetes -- including last year’s Skin & Bones gala for the Museum of Contemporary Art -- is partial to Veuve Clicquot. “For me it has always been about and it will always be about Veuve. I haven’t had anything to drink for nine years, but when I did drink, it was what I drank. It’s got this feel of taste and glamour. In fashion it’s like when you become a gentleman, and the first thing you get is a camel coat or a Burberry trench. It’s a classic, and classics never go out of style.”

But tip too far and your Burberry trench could end up the Champagne version of True Religion jeans -- saturating a market to the point the cool kids move on. Which is why the cases of Veuve stacked next to the cash register at your local Cost Plus World Market are a problem. “We kind of wish they wouldn’t do that,” said Veuve’s brand manager Aisha Thompson. “Are we worried about overexposure? Yeah, it’s a concern.”

Wally’s Navarro put it in fashion-speak: “Veuve Clicquot is a great Champagne, and now it’s become a standard. It’s trickling down to the people who aren’t influencers. It’s like Veuve is Giorgio Armani -- high-quality and a great name, but everyone’s talking about Tom Ford’s new line.”

Thompson said the company tries to communicate its identity as “quirky and unpredictable” with a sense of “affordable luxury” through design partnerships. She cited a 2005 collaboration with designers such as Karim Rashid who created a limited-edition $10,000 chair to celebrate its Rose launch, and the more recent Porsche Design Studio Vertical Limit -- a handmade, brushed-steel monolith of a wine cellar with individually lighted sound- and vibration-proof bottle-shaped cubbies that constantly keep a dozen vintage magnums (dating back to 1955) at the same temperature as Veuve caves in Riems. There are only 15 in the world, and the price tag is a cool $70,000. The company has sold one since the Nov. 1 debut.

Krug has more of a Savile Row feel; instead of sponsoring high-profile events or trumpeting celebrity connections (though Madonna’s reportedly a fan), Krug has a quartet of Krug rooms in high-end restaurants around the world (London; Lausanne, Switzerland; Tokyo; and Hong Kong) -- basically buying naming rights to intimate dining rooms where it has collaborated on decor and menu and provides a selection of Krug not available elsewhere.

“We call it a bespoke approach,” said Krug’s brand director Remi Fritsch. “Like when a fashion brand has its own store, it can more closely reflect what the brand is all about.” Fritsch said the rooms are often rented by wine collectors as well as companies entertaining clients. In the U.S., where a Krug-branded room would run afoul of liquor laws, Krug gets its message across with intimate dinners. “In Los Angeles, we had one in July at Bastide,” Fritsch said. “We picked the flowers, the music and we presented it against a white backdrop as a way to showcase the wine.”

Like Krug, Cristal eschews overt sponsorship of events, preferring to take appeal directly to what brand spokesman Xavier Barlier calls “opinion leaders” -- collectors and hotel buyers. The brand’s back story helps -- commissioned by Czar Alexander II of Russia, who according to company lore wanted a bottle distinct from those used by the masses. The clear bottle, lore has it, was requested to make it harder for the czar’s foes to poison him. Barlier said that these tales help form the cult of Cristal.

“Of course the legends and the mystique are important,” he said. “Whether it is wine or automobiles or jewelry, one is buying a luxury product for more than just what it is. We all want to buy into the mystique and the magic.”

So what about the recent news that Rich, a German brand of the canned bubbly Prosecco, has become, according to its press materials, “an immediate market leader” thanks to the efforts of “advertising ambassador” hotel heiress Paris Hilton? According to a recent news release, the company hopes to leverage Hilton -- who appears in the ads nude and painted gold -- into a successful North American launch in 2008.

Perhaps mystique is best left to the French.

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adam.tschorn@latimes.com