The EU has quite strong laws regarding the naming and labeling of wines. A Champagne bottle is not only a sparkling wine coming from France, but from the specific Champagne region, from a limited types of grapes grown in that region and obtained using a specific fermentation process. There is also a limit on the cultivated surface and the number of bottles produced each year. As the "champagne" name is renowned, this keeps the prices very high for the whole process. As I remember, only the right to cultivate a couple of acres of vineyard in the Champagne region can cost up to $1M - not including the actual land and vines. (in the EU the vineyards are regulated, you cannot just plant 100 acres of vineyard wherever you want, you have to obtain a kind of license to be able to cultivate wine grapes, and this license is given only for specific types of grapes depending on the region).