From The Wall Street Journal:
The champagne of beers is no match for French authorities.
More than 2,300 cans of Miller High Life were dumped and destroyed in Europe this week for bearing the logo “the Champagne of Beers.”
The bubbly brew was on its way to Germany when it was seized in February by Belgian customs in the port of Antwerp, customs officials said.
Comité Champagne, a trade organization that oversees which bubbly can call itself Champagne, was told about the beer and “requested the destruction of these illicit goods,” a statement by Belgian customs authorities and Comité Champagne said.
Only sparkling wines made in France’s Champagne region can use the name on their labels, according to French laws.
Photos released by Comité Champagne showed workers cracking open cans of Miller High Life and pouring the golden-hued lager into plastic tubs. Another photo showed a crushed pile of empty cans.
Molson Coors Beverage Co., the company behind the brand, said it doesn’t import Miller High Life to the European Union and doesn’t know how the cans got there or why they were heading to Germany.
. . . .
Comité Champagne and Belgian custom officials didn’t say who in Germany was expecting the beer but said they “did not contest the decision” to have them destroyed.
Miller High Life was launched in 1903, the company said. Three years later, it gave the lager the moniker “the Champagne of Bottle Beer.” In 1969 it was shortened to “the Champagne of Beers,” which is still stamped on cans and glass-bottle labels.
European countries have strict rules about labeling where foods and beverages come from.
Last month, Toblerone said it would drop a picture of a Swiss mountain from its logo to comply with Swiss law after moving some chocolate production outside the country.
Link to the rest at The Wall Street Journal
PG says the French know the value of intellectual property.
I don’t know which is more disturbing: Calling that colored water “beer” or tasting purportedly authentic champagne and comparing it to “real wine” from a comparable AOC.
🙂