“Shampanskoye", russian sparkling wine!

Remember the Paris blind wine tasting of 1976?

Where California wines had better scores than top Burgundy and Bordeaux? Another incredible blind tasting took place many years before, generating as well an unexpected shock. A wine tasting was organized during the Paris World Exhibition in 1900. A Russian “Champagne” went out first in the Champagne category, outstripping French Champagne!

Russian Champagne production goes back a long way ago: the first winery was established in 1799 to serve the tsarist aristocracy. But it was only in 1891, that the first successful winery has been built. This winery was situated in Abrau-Durso by the Prince Lev Golitsyn.

At this time, the Russian Champagne was handcrafted and very expensive, but it didn’t fit for a long time with the near revolution and the Bolshevist’s seizure of power. After the October Revolution, Golitsyn’student named Anton Frolon-Bagreyev, started industrial mass production of this Russian sparkling wine, to do it he cut the maturation time from three years to one month!

The Second World War was tough for the Champagne industry in the world.  But, according to the legend, Staline decreed that people must have Champagne to celebrate their victory, so the production of soviet Champagne went on.

At this time, it became very popular and a real mass product, it was named “Sovetskoye Shampanskoye” (Soviet Champagne) in the 1920’s. Soviet Champagne doesn’t taste at all like  French Champagne, it’s extremely sweet, typically made from a blend of Aligoté and Chardonnay grapes and it’s a very cheap drink (around 2€).

Today, “Shampanskoye” is made globally from imported bulk wine, only Abrau-Durso and Tsimlanskoye are still authentic producers.

In October 2011, Russian sparkling wine made an agreement with the CIVC (Comité Interprofessionnel des Vins de Champagne), the Russian producers have to stop using the “Shampanskoye” name on labels by 2022 at the latest.  The agreement clarifies that the term “Shampanskoye” should refer exclusively to sparkling wines from the Champagne region of France.