The Cold War Chills: Russia Strikes France Along the Champagne Front
“[Stepan Arkadyevitch] was the familiar friend of everyone with whom he took a glass of champagne, and he took a glass of champagne with everyone[.]”
– Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Russia’s fondness for French champagne fills the goblet of modern history. Russians reportedly first became enamored of champagne during the Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th century, when imperial Russian troops occupied France’s Champagne region and treated themselves to the spoils of war. As the Napoleonic Wars drew to a close, Madame Clicquot (then head of famed Veuve Clicquot) defied French trade blockades to bring her champagne to Russia.
Throughout the remainder of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Tsars and Royal Courts of Russia continued to import and imbibe large quantities of this unique sparkling wine, which were specially ordered from and labeled by the prominent producers in the region of Champagne, France.
Indeed, leading vineyards and production houses in Reims and Épernay would compete to ensure that only bottles of sparkling wine from the Champagne region would come to define champagne as the drink of sophistication and success for Russian royalty and aristocrats.
Despite Czar Alexander I declaring in the early 1800s that he would only drink French champagne from Madame Clicquot’s 1811 vintage, so great was the love of champagne among Russian nobility that Russia later began to produce and bottle its own sparkling wine. These local efforts became necessary during and after the Russian Revolution of 1917 when champagne was considered to be “decadent” and its import was prohibited. As a result, in the 1930s, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered that the country mass produce its own sparkling wine for the working proletariat, called Sovetskoye Shampanskoye (Soviet Champagne), which continued being manufactured by government factories until the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Sometime after the Soviet Union dissolved, private manufacturers in former Soviet republics bought the rights to brand, market, and sell their local Sovetskoye Shampanskoye, which is typically a sweet or semi-sweet sparkling wine. At the same time, the import and sale of traditional French champagne into Russia began to grow exponentially. Today, Russia buys and consumes roughly 215 million bottles of champagne each year, of which about a quarter (53 million bottles) are drunk during the Russian New Year‘s celebrations.
So, with the historic and continuing passion in Russia for French champagne, why did Russia just go after the French branding and pride in the champagne sector? Earlier this month, Putin signed a law that now requires French champagne makers to add the term “sparkling wine” to the back label of all champagne bottles sold in Russia. French champagne makers have long resisted referring to their product as just another sparkling wine and fought to preserve the uniqueness of champagne labeling and branding. Indeed, under European Union law and various treaties governing international trade, only sparkling wines produced in the Champagne region have the legal right to use, label, market, and sell their wines as “champagne.”
Adding more yeast to bottled French anger, Putin’s new law also provides that the current producers of Russian “shampanskoye” are themselves exempt from adding the term “sparkling wine” to the back label of their bottles.
French champagne makers promptly and publicly expressed their outrage over the new Russian law and asked all producers to halt their champagne sales to Russia. Among the immediate reactions was a letter sent on behalf of Moët Hennessy, the French maker of Veuve Clicquot and Dom Pérignon champagnes, which informed its Russian clients that all deliveries of their champagnes would be suspended as Moët could not confirm whether it would agree to add “sparkling wine” to its labels for bottles sold in Russia. Since then, however, Moët reportedly has agreed to comply with the new law and thereby maintain its market share, which amounts to roughly a 1 million liter share of the 6.5 million liters of champagne that Russia imports each year from France.
Particularly, as both Russian traditional media and social media have mocked the new law, it remains unclear why Putin has chosen this moment to challenge France along the champagne front. Certain media outlets are speculating that the new labeling law is intended to promote sparkling wine production from the Crimea region, where reportedly a close Putin associate and billionaire owns several wineries. And there are Russian sparkling wine producers who claim that the new law only has a limited goal of ensuring that all sparkling wine imports, including French champagne, Spanish cava, and Italian prosecco, be classified similarly.
It remains unclear at the moment whether Russia will maintain the advantage and prevail in its initial strike against France in what French media are calling the “champagne war.” For now, it seems that at least one major French champagne producer has called a truce and yielded ground. Whether others will follow or challenge the new Russian law remains to be seen. Just as few were expecting Putin’s advance here, a French counterattack and halt to champagne sales in Russia is not inconceivable. It is worth keeping in mind that the Russian market only accounted for less than one percent of French champagne sales last year.
Perhaps we should heed the words of Alexander Pushkin, a great Russian writer who wrote in Eugene Onegin, “Champagne is sparkling, lively, and capricious.” And, one might add, not to be taken for granted.
Danilo Diazgranados is an investor, collector, and lover of fine wines and a member of the prestigious Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, a fraternity of Burgundy wine enthusiasts.
