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Sunday, December 24, 2023

Singapore Airlines Champagne Label Explained

 

Champagne on Singapore Airlines. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.


On a Singapore Airlines flight in December 2023 I saw on the back of the top of the trolley a tall bottle with a waisted cork covered in foil. The heavy corks, normally covered in a wire net like a tennis net, are to stop the expanding gassy bubbles blowing the cork out. I was sitting in Economy, so I thought it must be a cheap Prosecco or sparkling wine, even a non alcholic drink imitating Champagne. 

It was good enough to please me. Although it was slightly too warm, and not very bubbly. I don't know how long it had been opened. 

Later, I went to the galley and asked to see the bottle. To my surprise, it was real Champagne, that is to say, from the Champagne region of France. Champange is a protected name. You cannot legally call your drink Champagne unless it comes from the place in France called Champagne (or in recent times, from the USA, run by a French Champagne company). You can say Champagne method, which is not the same as coming from Champagne, with their soil, water, grapes, and centuries of expertise. (And probably payment to some collective marketing company and lawyers fighting to remove fakes pretending to be from your region when they are not.)

I do not know Charles de Casenove. I am more familiar with Moet et Chandon and Veuve Cliquot.
Here's a quick reminder of what the French words mean. Et is French for and. Veuve is French for widow. 

On the label on the bottle in the photo I took you can read these words:
Champagne - the region of France
Cazanove is from the Occitan for new house.

Occitan (English: /ˈɒksɪtən, -tæn, -tɑːn/;[10][11] Occitan: occitan [utsiˈta, uksiˈta]),[a] also known as lenga d'òc (Occitan: [ˈleŋɡɔ ˈðɔ(k)] Frenchlangue d'oc) by its native speakers, sometimes also referred to as Provençal, is a Romance language spoken in Southern FranceMonacoItaly's Occitan Valleys, as well as Spain's Val d'Aran in Catalonia; collectively, these regions are sometimes referred to as Occitania. It is also spoken in Calabria (Southern Italy) in a linguistic enclave of Cosenza area (mostly Guardia Piemontese). Some include Catalan in Occitan, as the distance between this language and some Occitan dialects (such as the Gascon language) is similar to the distance between different Occitan dialects. Catalan was considered a dialect of Occitan until the end of the 19th century[12] and still today remains its closest relative.[13]

Occitan is an official language of Catalonia, Spain.

de means of in French. (Charles de Cazanove, Charles of Cazanove)


Maison fondée ) à Reims en ...  means in English - house (business) founded at Reims in

acute accent (l'accent aigué 

pere is French for father

fils is French for son

tete de cuvee

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