When a foolish points gets repeated over and over again, you just have to say "stop feeding the trolls". Let it go.

But what do you do when the troll keeps coming back and feeding himself? I mean, it doesn't matter how often he says it, it's not going to be correct.

Let him repeat it to an empty room. The point has been made and intelligent people can tell the difference. Time to move on.

its like calling Parma ham Iberico.... in whatever way they are produced, it's wrong...

Iberico ham comes from Black Iberian Pigs. It doesn't matter if that Black Iberian Pig is in Arkansas or Spain, it will still be a Black Iberian Pig, you can't take a Danish Protest Pig, ship him off to the Iberian peninsula, slaughter him and call him a Jam�n ib�rico. Parma ham by contrast requires no specific pig or boar, it is dry cured ham from Parma. If you are going to use analogies, do know something about it.

Pick a side, French lawyers or common sense.

Intelligent people don't let some over-protective ruling from a paranoid local industry change what is a global product.

If I buy an Australian feta cheese and a similar ruling gets pushed though, am I going to stop calling it feta cheese? Don't think so, though I'm sure the "Le Champagne" brigade will jump right in about how it's no longer a feta for one simple reason... lawyers.

So hopefully now your hangover is better you'll let us know what champagne they treated you to?

It's not clear whether you're referring to those who agree with you, or the others.

I can't believe the lack of common sense...

Champagne is a region, the wine made in that region is called champagne.. It's so easy and simple..

Valpolicella is a region, wine made in that region is called valpolicella.

Chianti is a region, wine made in that region is called chianti.

Cotes du Rhone is a region, wine made in that region is called cotes du Rhone.

Now, someone thinks that to his taste champagne and American sparkling wines are the same and so he pretends to call American sparkling wines "champagne". Just because he said so.

Where is the common sense? Would you call the Alps, "Rocky Mountains", just because once, while you were skiing in St Moritz, you thought there was a similar slope in Aspen? And then pretend that it's only lawyers that prevent people from calling the Alps "Rocky Mountains"?

Wines made in champagne are called champagne, not because lawyer said so, but because they are made in that region with grapes from that region.

If you make a sparkling wine in Napa you can call it Napa Sparkle, or however you like, but why on earth would you call it with a name of a region of France thousands of miles away?

Wow, I had no idea this thread was still going! May I venture an opinion or two?

Spot on. It's everywhere. In retrospect I also realized that I don't favor carbonated drinks of any kind Probably should have added that to the OP.

LOL... I don't know if you're channelling Jackie Gleason or Homer Simpson, but it works either way.

I enjoy good red wine as often as I can. But people aren't making a big deal out of it everywhere I go. It's the 'big deal' that people make which is at least as annoying as the champagne everywhere. It's presented to me as though I'm supposed to imagine that life is suddenly transformed just because I'm given a glass of lukewarm generic fizz. Nope.

This has spread and spread to the point where I'm just sick of champagne generally and (frankly) look down upon people who drink it all the time thinking they've upgraded their lives to first class.

Nope the analogy would be with Harris Tweed, or better yet Shetland Wool, which are indeed protected. 'Kobe Beef' is another example: protected at its origin and lied about wildly in the USA. Because you can make money that way.

For my part US champagnes should be called "Champagne-style sparkling wine' but the law is the law and they can call it whatever they want. Note that we do protect (generic!) cheese and ice cream more carefully!

Exactly.

Yep, might makes right. Now, I don't eat caviar but should any caviar dyed black be named Beluga? Of course not. But why? Just because of the species?

I've been going to a couple of my local Cost Plus World Markets over the last month and they have some discounted wines at 50% off if you buy any 4 from the disco shelf. I've been able to get Heidsieck Monopole for $20 and Nicolas Feuillatte for $15. I usually mix in some cheaper whites and reds to get up to the 4 minimum.

Each store has a different amount left and the displays are sometimes hidden. Just throwing it out to anyone who has an interest.

Thanks for the tip. I've never seen any decent prices on champagne there.

I forgot to add that you need to sign up for their Explorer frequent shopper program to get all the discounts. It's easy to do at the store. It's driven off of your phone number.

http://www.worldmarketexplorer.com/

Fellow members of this thread, I raise my glass to you!

Went to Ruinart on a recent trip to Champagne and loved it. I bought a couple bottles of the blanc de blancs at duty free in CDG. It's really delightful (about $65).

The tasting we had was the 2002 Dom Ruinart blanc de blancs and the 1998 Dom Ruinart rose. Both were delightful.