Confused? No lesser statesman than Vladimir Putain signed this into law.
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He’ll have to annex Steamboat Springs next…
Nyet way!
Next in, Russia to be renamed Australia and any people with current Australian passports will not be allowed into the country unless they hand modify their passports to read “The Country Formerly Known as Australia”.
No word yet on plans to rename the Kremlin The Great Barrier Reef.
Very well played (assuming it’s not a typo)
No typo I assure you.
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Well, it looks like my Champagne budget just went to zero…
Keeping it from getting political, but nevertheless showing that Vlad the Asshole is a crook, I have it second hand, only one person between me and the executive director of Massandra, that when the Russkis seized Crimea a few years back, one of the first things Putin did was to send his minions into the vaults at the winery, seize all of the carefully stored and sealed barrels of very old Massandra, and took them back to Moscow, making them unreliable and facilitating counterfeiting.
Russians: the masters of geopolitical trolling…
The same law will also regulate the labeling of konyak (cognac), after a transition period.
Not sure, but I suspect this may be directed at production in former Soviet republics, rather than France. The Soviet Union produced sovyetskoye shampanskoe, mainly in Crimea. After breakup of the Soviet Union, the name was used by a number of producers in other former republics (the warmer areas).
After the break up, Crimea was legally part of Ukraine, although somewhat disputed. Post 2014, Russia no longer considers it disputed. The new law only allows Russian producers to label their wine as (Rossiskoye) Shampanskoye, other producers can’t use the term and must add “sparkling wine” to the back label (probably igristoye or igristoye vino). Not clear there is any ban on Champagne on the front label.
The wealthy owner of a couple of the largest Crimean producers of shampanskoye is reputedly a good friend of Putin’s.
-Al
Also, note that shampanskoye was created to provide a cheap source of bubbles for Soviet citizens. I imagine high end examples exist (I’ve never tried one) but the bulk of the shampanskoe production sells for the equivalent of a few dollars a bottle. Another reason I suspect this law is more about competing with producers in former republics for the mass market.
-Al
Talk about backing down, wow-
“On Saturday the celebrated champagne producer Moët Hennessy, part of the LVMH luxury group that includes Veuve Clicquot, Ruinart, Mercier, Krug and Dom Pérignon, threatened to suspend exports to Russia.
Leonid Rafailov, the director general of AST, one of Russia’s main wine distributors, acknowledged Moët’s move, telling AFP: “I can confirm I have received notification of this, and it’s justified.”
But by Monday the threat had gone flat when the company announced it would resume deliveries. “The Moët Hennessy champagne houses have always respected the law in place wherever they operate and will restart deliveries as soon as it is able to make the [label] changes,” the group said.
That is really disappointing … I thought there were some lines they would not cross.
I assume these bottles will trade at a premium
As part of LVMH, they risked losing a large part of their luxury business. Principle lost out, as it so often does.
I learn a ton of shit on this board.
Sometimes I can even use the stuff I learn!
From what I can tell, all LVMH will do is add “sparking wine” (igristoye vino) to the back label. I don’t think the front label will change at all assuming they didn’t have Cyrillic import labels (probably didn’t). In particular, they will be allowed to use “Champagne” in Latin characters on the label. Note that Russian sparkling wine already has Rossiskoye Shampanskoye (in Cyrillic) on the front label. Doesn’t seem like a hill to die on.
-Al
We collectively have a great deal of knowledge. I dare say we know most shit worth knowing and quite a lot more!
-Al
Otherwise it’s just sparkling Novichok.
How did that joke not get made?