Bottles of champagne are displayed December 21, 2016 at a Nicolas French wine specialist store in Paris, France. Picture taken December 21, 2016. REUTERS/Charles PlatiauPARIS/MOSCOW, July 5 - France's champagne industry group on Monday blasted a new Russian law forcing foreign champagne producers to add a "sparkling wine" reference to their bottles and called for champagne exports to Russia to be halted.
The French champagne industry group called on its members to halt all shipments to Russia for the time being and said the name "champagne", which refers to the region in France the drink comes from, had legal protection in 120 countries. French Trade Minister Franck Riester said he was tracking the new Russian law closely, in contact with the wine industry and France's European partners.Moet Hennessy, the LVMH-owned French maker of Veuve Clicquot and Dom Perignon champagnes, said on Sunday it would begin adding the designation "sparkling wine" to the back of bottles destined for Russia to comply with the law.shares were down around 0.2% on Monday afternoon, underperforming the Paris bourse, which was up 0.34%.
Only one France, only one champagne....