Some specialty wines are imported from countries including France and Russia. There's also a healthy export business, with 600,000 liters of Czech bubbly ending up in Slovakia, Pakistan, Germany, Ukraine, Croatia and Poland. It's also an opportunity to employ people, especially in the region of south Moravia, where unemployment is a problem. Although sparkling wine is produced in the Czech Republic, imports flow across borders from Russia, where labeling requirements aren't as strict as they are domestically, Verlova said. In addition to information such as grape type and country of production, all artificially produced sparkling wine must clearly identify how the wine was carbonated.
Every customer needs to be careful to read it properly.
But some importers, he concedes, fail to add the correct information to their labels. Because traditionally produced sekt is more expensive, between 90 and several hundred crowns a bottle, customers are often enticed into pulling a cheaper bottle off the shelf at their local grocery. I would recommend consumers read what is written on labels, then decide what to buy. Some of the price difference is due to the cost of production, but traditional sekt makers also say an unfair consumption tax compounds the problem. Sparkling wines are taxed at the rate of 16.8 Kc a liter, while traditional sekt is taxed at 25.3 Kc a liter, said Martin Pucek, secretary of the Czech-Moravian Wine Union.