In Russia, champagne is now just a simple sparkling wine

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Putin's nationalism extends to the champagne glass

Photo: Mikhail Metzel / TASS / picture alliance / dpa

For months, a new law on the classification of sparkling wines in Russia has been causing confusion among the champagne-loving upper class - and upset among retailers.

But despite all the efforts of the French government: Since Saturday, France's champagne manufacturers are no longer allowed to print the Russian name "Schampanskoje" in Cyrillic on their labels in their export business with Russia.

In other words: The Russian word for champagne will in future be reserved for Russian sparkling wines in the country, while the famous drops from the French region of Champagne are supposed to be called very disgusting sparkling wines.

French manufacturers are at least allowed to use "champagne" in Latin script, but have to add "sparkling wine" in Cyrillic script on the back of the bottle - a sacrilege for the proud industry.

The law signed by President Vladimir Putin in June led to a dispute with Paris.

Russia is building its own top wineries

The rules were supposed to come into force earlier, but Paris negotiated a postponement until the end of 2021.

"In this way we were able to ensure that non-compliant bottles that were sent before July could be sold," explained the industry association Comité Champagne.

However, France was unable to completely avert the new rule.

Paris has not given up yet: According to information from the French Ministry of Commerce, the talks are continuing.

"We are continuing to work with the European Commission on this matter to defend our wine and spirits industry, including champagne," said a ministry official.

For their part, representatives of the manufacturers traveled to Russia in November to meet with producers.

The Russians "are in the process of building their own top wineries," said Maxime Toubart, Co-President of the Champagne Committee.

This gives him hope: the Russian producers could give up the name “Shampanskoye” in the »medium term« and create their own names.

France's champagne winemakers have been using legal means to defend the protected designation of origin for decades: In Germany, they scored a victory in 2019 against the discounter Aldi, which had a "champagne sorbet" on offer.

Outside the EU, however, it is more difficult for them.

In addition to Russia, the USA does not recognize the protected designation of origin for champagne either.

As an export market, Russia ranks 15th for French champagne winemakers; around two million of the 150 million bottles exported are delivered to the country every year.

However, according to the Comité Champagne, the Russian upper class often buys particularly noble and therefore expensive cuvées.

apr / AFP