The social drinker

Today marks the centenary of the end of World War I. All over the world, people will think about what might have happened had that insane conflagration been avoided. What few people remember today is that the wine-loving French found the time to protect Champagne as a brand, when it came to drawing up the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

While the Champagne region was first identified in the Madrid Treaty of 1891, the French had to wait until Article 275 of the Versailles Treaty to fully protect the badly damaged region of Champagne from competitors who were trying to use the word ‘Champagne’ for their cava, Prosecco or Sekt.

Today, nowhere else on the planet calls their sparkling wine ‘Champagne’, except the Californians, because (not for the last time), the Americans never ratified an international treaty they had played a large role in writing. This means that, under American law, some Californian wines can be called Champagne if they use certain grapes and the same methods as the original back in France.

This was hardly the most unjust outcome of the Versailles Treaty, but it is a timely reminder that great wines must be protected in good times and in bad times.

In Ireland, we tend to associate Champagne with celebrations, so it may not be the most obvious drink to toast today’s most solemn of centenaries and the millions of brave men who fought on all sides, but perhaps, on reflection, it is the most appropriate?

After all, much of the worst of the fighting took place in the area around the great Champagne-making centres of Reims, Epernay and Ay, while the French insistence on protecting Champagne from competitors in 1919 serves as a reminder that good can come from even the darkest of days.