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The market before Christmas is extraordinarily supplied with most different wines and consumers buy the sparkling and carbonated wines more often than ever.

Therefore the Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority has carried out control of the current pre-Christmas offer of wines that are generally referred to as wines containing carbon dioxide. The inspectors focused on their safety, quality and correct labelling, and during the inspection of sellers – stall keepers they monitored also cases of potential adulteration of sparkling quality wines.

Results of the control are none too optimistic: out of the total of 45 samples taken, 38 were non-conforming: mostly, the wines did not comply with quality or sensory requirements, and their labelling was very often incorrect or incomplete. In two cases the control discovered wines that might be risky to human health. The inspectors also identified one case of adulterated sparkling wine.

Even though quality and labelling of wines in the Czech market are in general continually improving, the pre-Christmas (and pre-Easter) time is an exception. Shops and especially stalls are inundated with cheap carbonated and sparkling wines from small and unknown producers, which are, due to low prices, selling very well. Not every consumer is informed about the difference between the individual wine types and not everybody seeks the top quality. Nevertheless – if you’d like to celebrate Christmas or the New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day with a glass of really good fizzy wine – you should carefully read the labels attached to bottles, which, by law, should contain a number of mandatory data. In addition to specification of the wine producer, one of the most important pieces of information is the correct classification of wine.

Informally, it is accustomed to refer to all wines with “bubbles” as to “sparkling wines” and very often these wines are confused. But there are big differences between them. While in sparkling wines the carbon dioxide is generated during a natural process of fermentation, into carbonated wines the carbon dioxide is added in the production process. There is also a difference in quality of the individual sparkling and carbonated wines.

Sparkling wines are produced in four quality classifications: sparkling wine, classified sparkling wine, sparkling wine from a classified wine-growing area (it means a classified wine from a particular wine-growing area) and cultivators’ sparkling wine. These wines differ between one another in quality, alcohol contents and apparent pressure in a bottle.

Carbonates wines are made from the domestic table or quality wines by carbonation and the label should not declare such a type of wine as sparkling.

In addition to sparkling wines from a particular wine-growing area, cultivators’ sparkling wines and classified sparkling wines, the other sparkling or carbonated wines mustn’t be labelled as “champagne ”. If so, it is then considered as adulteration.

And finally, the term "champagne" can only be applied to wine produced in the region of Champagne, France. It is prohibited to use the term on labels of other sparkling wines (not to mention the carbonated wines!).

One recommendation in conclusion: event though the higher price does not always guarantee good quality, we recommend to avoid buying extremely cheap wines sold in stalls and, preferentially, to choose wines from established producers.

Only the wine produced in the region of Champagne in France can be labelled as "champagne" .