In the wake of Prohibition, the Federal Alcohol Administration (later to become part of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms) was set up in the U.S. Treasury Department to create licensing and permit requirements and to establish regulations. Charles Fournier of Gold Seal Vineyards in Hammondsport, New York, became involved in the promulgation of federal regulations to legalize use of the term “champagne” in the United States. The regulations state that an American champagne must be “a type of sparkling light wine which derives its effervescence solely from the secondary fermentation of the wine within glass containers of not greater than one gallon capacity, and which possesses the taste, aroma, and other characteristics attributed to champagne as made in the Champagne district of France.” A sparkling wine not having these characteristics can only be called a sparkling wine.
