A locally-made sparkling wine was featured at President Barack Obama's first state dinner.

Fifth-generation French winemaker and Piedmont Virginia Community College viticulture instructor, Claude Thibaut, got a very special phone call this month. He was informed that his sparkling wine would be featured at the dinner.

Even the northern Virginia couple that has made headlines in recent days crashing the party sampled some of Thibaut's wine.

Some of the most powerful and controversial people toasted with the wine Tuesday. Guests and dignitaries washed down their pumpkin pie tart dessert with the winemaker's sparkling chardonnay, Thibaut-Janisson Brut.

"It feels great to know that some very important people have tasted it, and saw my name on the label," says Thibaut.

Born into a champagne-making family in France, sparkling wine is in Thibaut's blood. He imparts his champagne knowledge to local students every Saturday, teaching them how to appreciate his lifelong passion.

Thibaut is working to bring the art of sparkling wine back to Virginia.

"I have some friends who told me I was born with a champagne glass in my hand. So, it's part of your blood," says Thibaut.

The wine is made with white grapes from an Ivy, Virginia vineyard and fermented at the Veritas Vineyard in Afton, Virginia.

Thibaut says sparkling wine is the most difficult wine to make because it takes years to ferment, and removing the yeast is a delicate process. However, he says the grapes in the Charlottesville area yield sparkling wines that give Thibaut's hometown of Champagne, France a run for its money.

A bottle of the sparkling chardonnay costs $28 and stores like Foods of All Nations on Ivy Road and The Virginia Shop in the Barracks Road Shopping Center carry it.