Following diplomatic efforts by the French government, Champagne houses will have a further two months before their bottles have to carry additional labels bearing the Russian term "sparkling wine" in Cyrillic letters on the back label. The usage of the word Champagne in Cyriili - ‘шампа́нское’ (‘Champanskiya’) - is not allowed anymore according to Russia's new law adopted in July.
"This does not settle everything, but we are determined to move forward in this period", Franck Riester, Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness, told the AFP news agency.
French officials hope that further discussions in December will lead to official recognition of their country’s regional appellations. Until recently, there have been few indications that this would be likely to be agreed any time soon. But Russian aspirations for increased exports of its own wines from the Krasnodar region may change this situation.
Russia currently is fiftieth on the global chart of wine exporters.
