European Central: Russia Attempts To Claim The Name Champagne
Anna Galkovskaya / EyeEm / SEAN GLADWELL
While countries look forward to returning to normal and seeing economic growth, Russia is doing what it knows best. Russia is once again creating a hostile environment with another country, only this time with France. Fortunately, in this case Russia has not attempted to annex part of France. Instead, Russia has declared that only sparkling wine produced in Russia can be called Champagne. Sparkling wine from outside the country can still be labelled as Champagne in French but will also need to be labelled in Cyrillic as sparkling wine. The irony of this situation is that the name “Champagne” comes from the Champagne region of France. The term is currently protected in over 120 countries around the world. Besides brands being upset about the name change, this change will also cost companies.
Strict standards are in place to ensure that Champagne produced to a high standard. In the French Champagne region, Champagne must be produced using only the approved varieties of grapes, along with having to mature for a minimum of 15 months. Only seven grape varieties are allowed for the production of Champagne; Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Petit Meslier, and Arbane. The first three grape varieties are the most commonly used to produce Champagne. Grapes used for Champagne must also be harvested by hand and pressed only twice in a covered environment. Champagne is also set apart from sparkling wine due to being produced using the Méthode Traditionnelle, where the second fermentation occurs within the bottle. Sparkling wine can be produced using cheaper and easier methods. Numerous other rules govern Champagne production.
While not officially Champagne since the beverage can only be produced in the Champagne region of France and meet the standards of production, Champagne has also been produced in Russia since it was the Soviet Union. Sovetskoye Shampanskoye (Soviet Champagne) was created under Stalin in 1937 in an attempt to make the drink available and acceptable to the Proletariat. Shampanskoye still exists to this day.
Several producers including Moet Hennessy stated they would refuse to export Champagne to Russia. Moet Hennessy however has changed its mind and will continue to export Champagne to Russia including sparkling wine on the label. It has only recently canceled some deliveries in order to then change the labels to respect the new law. Russia is the 15th most important market for Champagne and sparkling wine producers, in particular the more expensive champagne brands. Sometimes the economic incentive is too large for countries to ignore, which appears to be the case for Moet Hennessy. Another issue to consider is that Moet Hennessy is part of LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton), a conglomerate that is publicly traded. The company may have had to consider the opinions of stockholders. Overall, in 2020 Champagne producers exported 2.6 billion euros (3.07 billion dollars) of Champagne worldwide.
Notably, the new Russian legislation not only helps producers of sparkling wine in Russia, but Crimea as well. This may have been done in order to help Russia secure its grip on Crimea which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Annually 250 million bottles of sparkling wine are produced in Crimea and Southern Russia. It appears that an objective is to help domestic producers of sparkling wine be seen as better in quality despite not following the guidelines that French producers of Champagne must follow.
The World Trade Organization also protects Champagne. This is because Champagne is protected by a geographic indication, which is respected in international trade. With a geographic indicator, the quality of a product such as Champagne is synonymous with the region that produces the product. The problem for French Champagne producers is that Russia is not explicitly banning French champagne producers from using the name Champagne, simply insisting they also write sparkling wine in Cyrillic in the label. The European Union however is still expected to file a complaint against Russia for the new law. Ideally, companies would halt the exportation of Champagne to Russia to potentially create pressure from within the country to drop the law, the fact that some French Champagne producers appear to have cracked due to the economic incentive of changing the label to keep selling the beverage in Russia.
These would not be the first, nor the last time that there has been a battle to protect the integrity of Champagne. The name Champagne has been protected since 1843. A recent case was won against Aldi, the German supermarket chain. Aldi lost the case due to Champagne-flavored ice cream not truly tasting like the beverage.
Another notable conflict in order to protect the name is with a small Swiss village with the same name. The Swiss village has fought for years in order to be able to include the name Champagne on wine bottles the village produces.
While the spotlight has been on Russia in recent years due to the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and alleged election interference in 2016 in the United States, this is not the first time the Russian government has done taken action regarding food and beverages. In 2014, Russia restricted the importation of Parmigiano-Reggiano and Iberian ham in favor of promoting the consumption of domestically produced cheese and ham. President Putin however suggested this restriction was based on the security of the Russian Federation. In 2017, Russia passed a new excise tax on imported sparkling wines.
