Also BTW it is not just the Oxford Companion but pretty much every reliable source relating to wine We can pull up references from Tom Stevenson s Champagne Sparkling Wine Guide Katherine MacNeil s Wine Bible Andre Domine s Wine Gordon s Opus Vino hell even Wine for Dummies They all say the same thing While Champagne and sparkling wine are the same type of wine they are as different as Bordeaux wine and a Meritage Champagne wine is a brandname that is recognized by governments such as the European Union Sparkling wine is a wine that anyone is free to produce in any method that produces bubbles As I noted before we already have a sparkling wine article to cover stuff like Andre s