Yes, these days the world knows the French are very protective of their named wines and other alcoholic brew recipes and processes. Champagne is a case in point.
Back in our Kalgoorlie days around 1974, friends Jill and Mike shared their Rhubarb Champagne recipe, a refreshing home made drink we’d enjoyed at their place. It was light pink, clear, lightly fizzy and only slightly alcoholic. We were keen to make a brew of our own. I’m sure I still have the recipe but it will be in storage and inaccessible. So I looked on line, and there are several nice sounding recipes, including this one, http://justlikemynanmade.blogspot.com/2011/02/rhubarb-champagne-alcoholic-or-not-its.html?m=1 though a tip in another suggests straining the brew through a nylon curtain before bottling. Colourful.
Anyway we did as Jill’s recipe directed, putting the rhubarb and whatever else mixture plus large amounts of sugar and water into screw top glass bottles, and placed the crate on the floor in the pantry to do its thing.
About a week later I noticed the bottle tops had changed from flat topped to dome shaped indicating a build up of pressure! Ivan was a toddler with typical levels of curiosity , and we instantly realised this was a potentially dangerous situation. If he fiddled with them he could have been badly injured.
We carefully slid the crate out of the pantry to the middle of the kitchen floor. When Mike delicately just touched one bottle top, the lid flew off and a fountain of alcoholic smelling foam shot straight up and spread over much of the kitchen ceiling before dripping down like foamy stalactites.
I collapsed into a chair in a heap of hysterics at the sight, despite the danger of 11 other bottles being in close proximity. Mike very carefully took these to the back door one by one and released the tops of each, which like fire extinguishers sent foam to the back fence, about 10m away. It took a good week before the strong alcoholic fumes disappeared from our back yard. I think we may have overdone the sugar a bit …. and I am very sorry there’s no photo of a sight neither of us will ever forget.