BUBBLES & STRIFE

Champagne began flowing into Russia again after French producers backed down in a dispute with Russia over the use of the drink’s name.

The industry’s lobby group, the Champagne Interprofessional Committee, abandoned a boycott it had called in July after a decree signed by Vladimir Putin restricted use of the Russian name for champagne – shampanskoye – exclusively to Russian-produced sparkling wine.

The order forces the French makers to stick a Russian label on bottles defining the content only as “sparkling wine”.