That's interesting; I wonder how they pulled that off?
Producers from other regions of France produce wines that are almost identical to true champagne, but they cannot call it that.
They used to print on their bottles that their wines were made according to the "champagne process" (méthode champenoise) but were eventually barred from saying even that (which is crazy, since it's all but true).
They now say they use the "traditional process" (méthode traditionnelle) and I think everyone knows what it means.
It could be fun to import US-made champagne in France and continue to call it champagne. But as a rule, foreign-grown wines are hard to find in France.
"This is an interesting question, and unfortunately it comes with a confusing answer. Let me start by addressing the use of the term "Champagne" as it refers to wine. The French wanted to protect the use of the term "Champagne" to only refer to bubbly made using traditional methods from grapes grown and vinified in the Champagne region of France, so when the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919 to end WWI, they included limits on the use of the word. History buffs may recall that the United States never actually ratified the Treaty of Versailles, and that in 1919 the U.S. was in the midst of Prohibition, so alcohol-labeling laws hardly seemed important at the time. This created the loophole that allowed producers here to legally slap the word "Champagne" on their bottles of bubbly—much to the irritation of the winegrowers in Champagne. Out of respect and to avoid confusion, many producers in the United States called their bubbly "sparkling wine," even when it's made in the traditional method.
Then, in early 2006, the United States and the European Union signed a wine trade agreement, and the issue was brought up again. This time, the United States agreed to not allow new uses of certain terms that were previously considered to be "semi-generic," such as Champagne (as well as Burgundy, Chablis, Port and Chianti). But anyone who already had an approved label was grandfathered in and may continue to use the term."
They haven't technically "pulled it off". They just keep doing it, despite infringing US-France trade agreements, but the trade agreements keep going because France is dependent on its US trade more than the US is dependent on its French trade.
It's hard to enforce a law when the person breaking it is bigger than you.
That said, I personally disagree with the law of denominations itself, and I think it's pretty clear by now that French wines have gotten worse in quality ever since strict denominations have been introduced, mostly because they're just another form of economic protectionism.
One of the reasons Belgium produces the best and most varied beers is that nobody dictated what exactly defines beer. So, even in highly specialised beers, such as fruit beers, some breweries put the fruit before the first fermentation, others before the second, others ferment fruit juice separately and add it later, etc. Then everyone looks at what everyone else is doing and finds a way to improve their own product.
I wrote an article about this a few years ago, in which I asserted that Belgium is like the YouTube of beer:
> That's interesting; I wonder how they pulled that off?
Probably having a lot of weight to throw around in the trade negotiations. South Africa had a similar bubbly wine made from the same kinds grapes by people of (partly) French descent. After an EU trade deal it's now sparking wine, Methode Cap Classique
Producers from other regions of France produce wines that are almost identical to true champagne, but they cannot call it that.
They used to print on their bottles that their wines were made according to the "champagne process" (méthode champenoise) but were eventually barred from saying even that (which is crazy, since it's all but true).
They now say they use the "traditional process" (méthode traditionnelle) and I think everyone knows what it means.
It could be fun to import US-made champagne in France and continue to call it champagne. But as a rule, foreign-grown wines are hard to find in France.