Bubbly Beef? France’s Champagne Region Is Seriously Mad at Miller High Life for Calling Itself ‘the Champagne of Beers’

Tori Latham
·2 min read
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The French take their Champagne seriously. So seriously, in fact, it’s led to a bit of a tussle with “the Champagne of beers.”

Miller High Life, the American brew, has long used that nickname in its branding, and the French are having none of it. Last week, the Comité Champagne, an organization dedicated to protecting the bubbly alcohol, had a shipment of the beers destroyed by Belgian officials, The Washington Post reported.

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“This destruction. . .confirms the importance that the European Union attaches to designations of origin and rewards the determination of the Champagne producers to protect their designation,” Charles Goemaere, the managing director of the Comité Champagne, said in a statement.

For a bottle of bubbly to be called “Champagne,” it must be produced in the Champagne region of France and be made using traditional methods. As such, the Comité Champagne takes offense when non-Champagnes try to use that terminology to sell their wares. When Belgian customs intercepted the 2,352 bottles of Miller High Life, the Comité swooped in to protect its brand.

This isn’t the first time the organization has gotten involved in such matters. The Post noted that the Comité Champagne sued Perrier all the way back in 1987 for calling itself “the Champagne of mineral waters.” Along with that, the group has successfully fought back against an Yves Saint Laurent perfume, an iPhone, and a Swedish yogurt that tried to brand itself with the “Champagne” name. (Thanks to a grandfather clause in a 2005 agreement between the U.S. and the E.U., drinks like Korbel and André can still bill themselves as “California champagne.”)

For its part, Miller High Life has used the “Champagne” name in its branding for more than a century. Until 1969, it was called “the Champagne of bottle beers,” before it shortened the tagline to the well-known “the Champagne of beers.” While the company may have been defeated in Germany last week, it doesn’t seem like Miller High Life is making any moves to completely overhaul its slogan.

Molson Coors, the company that owns the brand, said that it respects restrictions around the “Champagne” designation. However, “we remain proud of Miller High Life, its nickname and its Milwaukee, Wisconsin provenance,” it said in a statement. “We invite our friends in Europe to the U.S. any time to toast the High Life together.”

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