The Comite Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC) have announced that after lobbying the Chinese authorities are to recognise champagne as the official label only for French produced sparkling wine. The Chinese authorities have registered champagne as an official label for sparkling wines only produced in the French Champagne region.
This recognition could boost protection of champagne in a country that is renowned for the production of fakes. The French champagne industry sells half of its annual production internally in France, but bottles of champagne attract higher prices and sales growth abroad. The Chinese have traditionally preferred spirits such as cognac, red wine or whisky but more recently they have developed a taste for luxury goods including champagne. According to International Wine & Spirit Research until now only 0.5% of the wine consumed in China is sparkling wine as Chinese consumers prefer still wines - especially red wine - over bubbly ones,.
The CIVC haven't won the battle yet as other countries, such as the U.S., have dragged their feet on introducing regulations to protect the champagne name.
This move by the Chinese authorities will allow champagne producers to ensure that, as their business grows in China, they don't suffer the same fate as in the U.S., where weak legal protection has undermined this sector. Between 45% and 50% of sparkling wine volumes in the United States. are mis-sold as Champagne, according to Sam Heitner, director of the U.S. Champagne Bureau, the industry's representative in the country.
The need to protect the champagne name gained importance as champagne sales in China soared in recent years. In 2012, champagne exports to China, excluding Hong Kong, jumped 52% to two million bottles, making the country the twelfth-largest export market for champagne.
China makes up a meagre 0.6% of total exports of champagne. The U.S. is champagne's second-largest export market, behind the U.K., with over 10% of exports.
The French Champagne houses have worked hard to promote champagne in China in recent years amid growing demand for top-end beverages and luxury goods. China's best clubs and karaoke bars stock the drink, and the well-known brands have been promoting heavily through advertising and publicity stunts. In 2011, Moet et Chandon brought Scarlett Johansson, its celebrity spokeswoman, to China to promote the brand and even auctioned off a dinner date with the actress at a Christie's wine auction in Hong Kong.
The registration of the name will provide a boost to the existing regulations in China, said Wang Wei, head of the Champagne Office in Beijing, in a statement. He added that abusive uses of the champagne name are "few, rapidly detected and severely punished."
