This is a very interesting question. It was actually the topic of a conversation I had with a friend of mine during a dinner. I was saying that I had problems to find in a US retailer some Champagne coming from our lovely region of Champagne.Indeed, in France we have what we called "appelation d'origine controlee". If a product is labelled Champagne in France, that means that it has been produced and harvested in the Champagne region.
Champagne = Sparkling wine
The fact is that for most of American who don't know about this region and the history of sparkling wine, a Champagne is a sparkling wine. So for my friend there is no problem to call a Californian sparkling wine Champagne.
But however while we talk about wine or any kind of other traditional products, the region where it has been produced influence a lot both the quality and the features of a product.
Why a Champagne wine is different from another sparkling wine?
Because the Champagne region, as any other region, has some ground specificities, a climate, a know how and tradition that gives a specific quality to the wine, that you won't be able to find in California.
Because of all these features, that differentiate Champagne from any other sort of sparkling wine, the certification can be considered as a sort of brand. Maybe not an homogeneous brand of course, because the quality of wine vary a lot depending on the producer, which does not use the same technique to produce. But still a brand with an image linked to the region it has been produced in.
Champagne does not always mean better quality
This is the same concept for a Bordeaux, or a Bourgogne. I don't say that a Bordeaux is better than a Californian wine (even though my chauvinism force me to say it ;), because that would not be true.
California, Chile or South Africa produce great wines, that are highly competitive and have great qualities. Some of them beat French wines to be objective.
But Bordeaux will still be a reference as one of the best area to produce wine. Bordeaux (or Champagne) has as I have said a climate and geological conditions that can't be find anywhere. This is the same for its experienced wineries. All of that gives to Bordeaux specificities that is acknowledged by experts. Somehow you can even speak about a brand, as it has some characteristic, geographic and qualitative, that differentiate it from other products.
For example, that would shock me to see in a retail a bottle of soda written Coca Cola on it, if it is not produced by Coca Cola. That is not because it is the same ingredient that it is the same thing. Thus, American companies are fooling American customers playing on their lack of knowledge on the product. And this is bad. Bad for the French producers, but bad for a customer that will never have the chance to understand and learn about wine. I actually found this blog entry about the same topic: "Consumers clearly demand and deserve truthful wine labels which correctly identify location no matter what country they come from. Without addressing this issue, Wine Accords will fall substantially short of protecting consumer interests."
That is why I think that a Champagne should be called Champagne only if produced in the region of Champagne, France.
What do you think about it? Are you agree with me? Do you think Champagne = sparkling wine?
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