On Mar 30, 3:04 pm, "st.helier" > wrote:
> [News]
>
> First the Russians were credited with fuelling the London property boom.
>
> Then their wealth flooded into sectors from art to sports cars. Now the rush
> of roubles into Britain is credited with funding another rising market -
> champagne.
>
> Along with wealthy Indians, the estimated 300,000 Russian émigrés in Britain
> are being credited with spearheading a sharp increase in sales of rose and
> vintage bubbly.
>
> Connoisseurs, buyers and makers gathering around spittoons in London's
> Whitehall this week for the industry's annual tasting, the largest in the
> world and featuring about 10,000 bottles of champagne, toasted a 5 per cent
> growth in the value of the British market last year to more than £340
> million or 37 million bottles.
>
> From the ultra-expensive labels of Dom Perignon and Cristal to the dominance
> of supermarkets and their own-label brands, champagne sales have now
> increased in Britain for 11 years running.

Champagne was extremely popular with the upper classes in Russia
before the revolution. Cristal was a favorite of the Tsars. However
today's version is a little different from what the Tsar had. The
Champagne was likely quite sweet then, because this was the style most
liked in Russia. Also to current Cristal bottle is not up to what the
Tsar demanded. The Tsar's Champagne was bottled in the finest crystal.
I don't know who made the bottles for the Tsar, but it could have been
Baccarat. They had a special furnace just to make various crystal
objects for the Tsar.