TAKE CHAMPAGNE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 64, 7 June 1927, Page 3

TAKE CHAMPAGNE

SPARKLE FROM GAS FRAUDULENT ENGLISH MAKERS Steps are being taken to direct the attention of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the growth of a wine-manu-facturing industry in Great Britain. Some aspects of the development of this type of business are causing great concern to reputable and old-estab-lished houses of wine-producers and distributors, who are preparing to impress on the Government the necessity of either subjecting the British socalled wines to tax—in which case they would certainly disappear from the market —or providing a label approved by the Board of Trade which would be placed on bottles of imported wine to guarantee its genuineness. The operation of a number of British wine-making firms whose products have begun to be sold very extensively, particularly in industrial districts, are to be discussed at a special meeting of the Champagne Association this week with a view not only to impressing the Government with the need for action in the public interest but also to instituting legal proceedings in respect of the methods of some of the manufacturers in describing and labelling the wines.

Large premises have been acquired by the firms concerned in and around London, and the manufacture is usually carried on in underground cellars. In some cases what might be bought by the public as champagne or one of the allied sparkling wines is made from concentrated grape juice or dried grapes brought from France, and analysis has shown others of the wines to be prepared also with gooseberry and rhubarb juice. In every case the wine is aerated by pumping carbonic acid gas into the bottles. A product which resembles port wine but is never actually described as such, although ingenious imitation terms are employed, is also being made on an extensive scale in London, for sale specially in working-class districts of large towns. For what might be taken to be real champagne or sparkling wines the bottles are adorned with clever labels which do not state that the contents were made in Britain, but convey the suggestion that they are the genuine produce of France.