RUSSIA OF VLADIMIR POUTINE

APPROPRIATES THE CHAMPAGNE APPELLATION

Champagne deliveries to Russia stopped dead by Moët Hennessy (Ruinart, Moët et Chandon, Veuve Cliquot, Krug, Mercier, Dom Perignon…) for a weekend. Before the announcement of a resumption of supplies "as soon as possible" this Sunday, July 4. What happened ?

The champagne appellation for Russian sparkling wines

For thirty years, champagne producers have waged a merciless war against the sparkling wines that use their appellation throughout the world. But they lost an important battle in Russia, where Vladimir Putin agreed, on July 2, 2021, to an amendment to the law on the regulation of alcoholic beverages.

This text provides in particular that only Russian sparkling wines can be labeled as “champagne” while genuine French champagne must be content with “sparkling wine”. This amendment clearly indicates that Russian legislation will not take into account the protection of the French appellation “Champagne AOC”.

And yet not the same method

Not exactly the same beverage, as the Union de Reims daily reports. While real champagne undergoes a second fermentation in the bottle (the “Champagne method”) and is produced in a year and a half, Russian grape juice circulates for three weeks in a series of vats filled with wood chips seeded with yeast. . Question taste, the journalist Emmanuel Grynszpan had qualified this "champanskoye" as "frightfully sweet, adulterated and devoid of aroma, but present absolutely everywhere" Because the production, equivalent in volume to that of champagne, is mainly consumed in Russia.

A thorny case from a legal point of view

"Scandalized", the French producers, gathered within the Champagne Committee, stepped up to the plate on Monday by calling on the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the European authorities.

However, the case promises to be thorny from a legal point of view. According to international regulations, the wines of Champagne do have the exclusive right to use the name "Champagne" ... but in Latin characters. However, Russian legislation prohibits French producers from using the word champagne in Cyrillic, the writing used for the Russian language. "These regulations do not provide Russian consumers with clear and transparent information on the origin and characteristics of wines", assures the Champagne Committee, regretting that this law "calls into question more than twenty years of bilateral discussions between the European Union and Russia on the protection of appellations of origin. "

French leader LVMH bends over to the Russian market

This showdown, however, turned to Moscow's advantage, as LVMH's about-face showed. The powerful French luxury group notably owns Moët Hennessy, one of the largest producers of champagne. The day after the law was signed, LVMH first suspended its deliveries. But Sunday evening, its subsidiary Moët Hennessy finally indicated that it will resume deliveries "as soon as possible".

"The Champagne Houses of Moët Hennessy have always complied with the legislation in force wherever they operate and will resume deliveries as soon as possible while making these adjustments," the producer said in a statement. In a letter intended for its Russian customers and to which the business daily Vedomosti had access,the French company has announced that it will have to re-certify its products, which is expected to cost several million rubles. Having agreed, Sunday, July 4, to comply with Russian requests, it must change its labeling and rename its products in accordance with the new legislation.

The Russian daily recalls that 13% of the 50 million liters of sparkling wine and champagne imported each year into Russia come from France. Russia ranks 9th among wine consuming countries with 890 million liters sold in 2017.

The Russian daily recalls that 13% of the 50 million liters of sparkling wine and champagne imported each year into Russia come from France. Russia ranks 9th among wine consuming countries with 890 million liters sold in 2017.The Russian daily recalls that 13% of the 50 million liters of sparkling wine and champagne imported each year into Russia come from France. Russia ranks 9th among wine consuming countries with 890 million liters sold in 2017.

An AOC threatened all over the world

In Russia, the term “champagne” has been used without complex and for all kinds of sparkling wines for a long time. With this amendment, the Russian authorities certainly wish to promote local sparkling wine producers.

At the end of the 1930s, Stalin had a mass-produced “Soviet champagne” created, with the aim of making it accessible to all, low-end, but still popular on special occasions.

Abrau-Durso is a Russian “champagne” which captured the hearts of the tsars and which is still served in the Kremlin today. Produced on the shores of Lake Abrau, in the Krasnodar region (southern Russia), it has won several awards and titles in international competitions

Crimean sparkling wines with their ancestral producers experienced a second youth following the annexation of the peninsula in 2014 and their full opening to the Russian market. The country's flagship brand, Crimean wine Novy Svet, is owned by a friend of the Russian president, Yuri Kovaltchouk.

In France, two appellations of equivalent prestige to that of champagne are jealously guarded: bordeaux and cognac. "In Bordeaux, appellations such as Margaux or Saint-Emilion, but also mentions of classifications of grands crus, are regularly copied and usurped", details Jean-Baptiste Thial de Bordenave, director of the law firm specializing in wine law and DLLP Wine spirits. Cognac, for its part, succeeded in prohibiting Armenia from using its name to designate the quality brandy it has produced and exported on a large scale since ... the Soviet era.