It is with great good fortune that I can say I have been bitten by a bubbles bug this summer. It was by no means intentional, it just kind of happened. An early summer birthday was celebrated with grower Champagne. A meeting with Gianluca Bisol, my favorite producer of Prosecco wines from the hills of Conegliano Valdobbiadene, was joyously serendipitous. Then the European sporting summer prompted a column on the official bubbles of victory.

But it was a bottle of sparkling wine from the northwest Italian Piedmont region shared with much conviviality with friends over a lemony dessert that inspired this column. The wine was fresh and floral. Though dry, there were hints of honey on the nose as well as fruits of the tropics and a whiff of lemon. It was the golden color, the dancing bubbles in the glass that got me. As we toasted with the wine it seemed a special occasion, as it had all of the attributes of a grand vintage Champagne. But it wasn’t Champagne, it was Italian.