[toast0]

The US doesn't participate in the protection of geographical names because it reduces competitiveness of local industries. For better or worse, these names have become generic, a wine maker can't be expected to write "a bubbly wine made in the style of the champagne region, made from grapes bred in the region", you just write champagne on the bottle and don't export to the EU.

Also, most of our placenamed foods are not really transportable: New York pizza, Boston cream pie, philly cheese steak, etc.

[dragonwriter]

> For better or worse, these names have become generic, a wine maker can't be expected to write "a bubbly wine made in the style of the champagne region, made from grapes bred in the region", you just write champagne on the bottle and don't export to the EU.

IME, most US-produced bottles of sparkling wine that is informally referred to as "champagne" are not, in fact, labeled as champagne. (They are often labeled with terms associated with -- even if not exclusively so -- Champagne-style sparkling wines, such as cuvee or blanc de noirs or brut.)

[wodenokoto]

There is a common, generic alternative word for champagne: "Sparkling wine", so your example is really far-fetched.

Meanwhile, several alternatives have had success with their own name, such as Cava.

[DanBC]

Sparkling wine might not have been made with the champagne method, and some people think that's important.

Cava uses the champagne method; prosecco uses Metodo Martinotti. Some wines just use injected carbon dioxide.