On Monday (July 5), the French champagne distillery issued a request for diplomatic help regarding the new Russian law to reserve the term “champagne” for sparkling wine produced in Russia, which caused a temporary suspension of the supply of market leader Moët Hennessy.
French producers are very jealous of AOC or controlled appellations of origin, and it should allow them to use this term exclusively in countries that comply with the Lisbon Agreement on Unique Geographical Indications.
But Russia is not a signatory. On Friday, President Vladimir Putin signed a law banning the use of Russian-translated champagne-“Shampanskoe” on imported bottles.
Since the Soviet era, champagne-“shampanskoye” in Russian-has been used as a general term for various alcoholic beverages, some of which cost as low as 150 rubles (less than 2 euros) a bottle, which is in line with the luxury of champagne The image is contradictory. According to legend, after Stalin said that the Soviet people would “use champagne” to celebrate the victory over Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union began to produce “shampanskoye”.
French producers can still use the word in French, but they must also write “sparkling wine” in Cyrillic on the back of the bottle-this is a heresy, for brands that don’t say anything on earth. Match their unique bubbles.
“The Champagne people call on French and European diplomats to change this unacceptable law,” the Champagne Committee, composed of grape growers and producers in the Champagne region of northeastern France, said in a statement.
It condemned a “scandalous” move that “raised a challenge to the bilateral negotiations between the EU and Russia to protect the AOC for more than 20 years”.
Moët Hennessy, a subsidiary of luxury goods group LVMH, said on Sunday that it will abide by the law and will “as soon as possible” resume exports of its brands, including Dom Perignon, Moet and Veuve.
