Sovietskoye Champanskoye
We have some guests currently from France. This is not their first visit: Nichole originally came to Kyrgyzstan as a consultant and was so enamoured with the country, (Kyrgyzstan tends to do that to people), that she talked a group of her friends to come here. They also found the place enchanting and have returned several times.
We keep in touch and they are supporters of the Karakol Orphanage, they have participated at several of the “Days of Kyrgyzstan” organized by the Association of French Kyrgyz Cooperation, (ACFK – an association established by Kyrgyz students studying at Grenoble University).
This time, having read in a postcard that I had read Peter Fleming’s “News from Tartary” and that I couldn’t find a copy of Ella Maillart’s account of the same journey from Beijing to India in 1935, they presented me with a copy – in English, (Thank heavens!). Anyway, as a result, and as a sort of “Thank You, I decided to treat them to a glass or two of Kir Royale, as part of their “Farewell Dinner”.
For the record: Kir is a popular French cocktail, usually drunk as an aperitif before a meal or snack, made with a measure of crème de cassis, (blackcurrant liqueur), topped up with white wine. (When Champagne is used as the wine base it is known as Kir Royale – just one of the many variants that exist using de mûre, (blackberry), de pèche (peach) and even red wine. Following the commercial development of crème de cassis in 1841 the cocktail became a popular regional café drink, called blanc-cassis, but was “reinvented” due to the confiscation of all the local red Burgundy by the German army during the Second World War. The drink is now named after Félix Kir (1876–1968), who was the mayor of Dijon and popularized the drink by offering it at receptions to visiting delegations. (Besides treating his international guests well, he was also promoting two vital economic products of the region.) Kir initially allowed one of Dijon’s producers of crème de cassis to use his name, but subsequently extended the right to their competitors as well.
I first came across Kir back when I was a schoolteacher, accompanying school trips to France. One of our hosts offered us a glass before our meal. I was intrigued and asked for the recipe. It was remarkably simple, and on my return to the UK, I bought some crème de cassis and white wine, (I normally drink red), and would often make a glass on long hot summer evenings, especially if I was taking the opportunity to sit out in the garden.
I often get asked what I miss about the UK, here in Kyrgyzstan. Although Kir would not have been one of the things that immediately jumped into my mind, it did leap into my consciousness one hot summer’s day when we stopped off at a supermarket on one of my regular monthly trips up to Naryn. As is usual here, a large section of the supermarket was devoted to alcoholic beverages, (Vodka, Cognac, wine, beer and so on …), and you basically had to walk through it to get to any of the other departments. As I was making my way to get some bread, cheese and kolbassa, (cold meats – like salami and German sausages), for a picnic when a bottle caught my eye. It was locally produced Blackcurrant liqueur. I decided to buy a bottle and some champagne to make Kirs to go with the picnic. It was a great hit with everyone who tried it.
Unfortunately, I have only seen the liqueur once more, although during the summer months I do try to see if I can find some more so, although it would have been nice to have used local produce, I had to resort to using a bottle of Bols crème de cassis which I happened to see in the shop next door to my office, and made a point of buying before somebody else did, so that I could treat our French guests … and perhaps earn a few more “brownie points” by introducing a few more locals to this taste of France.
I was, however, able to get some locally produced Champagne, “Sovietskoye”. I did consider buying some ordinary white wine to go with the liqueur, but in the end decided that it would be nicer to use Champagne and make Kir Rioyale.
Here in Bishkek, there is the “Champagne Kombinat” on Prospect Mira, (Peace Avenue, one of the main North-South streets running from the city center towards the mountains of the Kyrgyz Range), with the statue of a young girl standing outside. Although it is called the “Champagne Kombinat”, they manufacture a variety of drinks, but I suppose that their main products are the various brands of Champagne that they produce. (They even have a brand of “Detskoye Champagne“, (Children’s Champagne), which is non-alcoholic.) These are normally semi-sweet and I, for one, find them quite palatable; very easy to drink at a celebration, or on a hot summer day.
Yes, I am aware that Champagne comes only from the Champagne region of France, using particular grapes and method of fermentation, and that all other sparkling wines are supposed to be labeled “méthode champenoise”, (and even this is frowned upon in Europe nowadays), but the locals here still produce a sparkling wine which they call Sovietskoye Champagne. They have been doing so since 1936 when the People’s Commissars of the USSR and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union adopted regulations of on the production of “Soviet champagne, dessert and table wines” on 28th June, 1936, (GOST 13918-88). Apparently, these rules still apply in the Republic of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine … and possibly other republics of the former Soviet Union … and the term “Soviet Champagne” has been in constant use since then by enterprises in the alcohol industry throughout the former Soviet Union.
Well, regulations are one thing … but the name … ? In most countries the term “champagne” is reserved exclusively for sparkling wines from the Champagne region, made in accordance with Comité Interprofessionel du Vin de Champagne regulations. In the European Union and many other countries, the name Champagne is legally protected by the Treaty of Madrid (1891), which was reaffirmed in the Treaty of Versailles after World War I. Apparently, however, this is not universally recognized and doesn’t apply here.
The United States, for example, does acknowledge the “exclusive nature” of the name, banning its use from all new US produced wines so that only those which had approval to use the term on labels before 2006 may continue to do so, and only when it is accompanied by the wine’s actual origin (e.g. California).
It seems, however, that the use the name “Soviet Champagne” has caused a certain amount of controversy here recently. There seems to have been a dispute over the use of the term as a product description, which resulted in the “unfair competition” created when one firm which managed to get a decision patenting it as a trademark. This effectively “prohibited” others from produce alcoholic beverages and calling them “Soviet champagne”. The appeal centered around the argument that the term was “not a trademark but a standardized form of wine, having a certain technology, requirements for raw materials and finished product with specific sensory and physical-chemical indicators, production of which is not tied in the minds of consumers to a particular company,” The Appeal Board of Kyrgyzpatent together with the State Agency for Antimonopoly Policy and Gosalko, (the state alcohol producer and regulator), came to a decision that the term “Soviet Champagne” could not be recorded as a patented trademark by any one company in Kyrgyzstan.
Well, despite this little legal nicety, we enjoyed our “Kir Royale”, even if it was made with Sovietskoye Champagne, and not the “real McCoy”.
Bishkek