Europe's third largest bank by assets is working quietly behind the scenes to return a world-renowned Champagne operation to its founders.

According to news reports from France, Credit Agricole is teaming up with close to 40 members of the Taittinger family to buy back one of Champagne's respected brands.

Just last July, the family sold Taittinger SA and Societe du Louvre, a hotel group, to U.S. private-equity fund Starwood Capital for about $3.5 billion. Starwood is putting the brand back on the block next month to focus on hotels. Taittinger is expected to fetch nearly $600 million.

Finance and news sources in Europe report that the purchase of Taittinger was so controversial that Starwood immediately decided to spin it off, in consultation with the Taittingers.

Credit Agricole aims to block other potential buyers, notably Belgian financier Albert Frere, by offering to buy a stake in Taittinger that it later would sell back to the family, according to Dow Jones Newswires. Thousands of landowners in the Champagne region have rallied behind the bank, but the Taittinger family itself is divided, sources indicate.

In Champagne, Credit Agricole lends seven out of every 10 euros that winegrape growers borrow and also makes nearly half the loans to champagne houses, which borrow to buy grapes.

Credit Agricole is trying to play the white knight to protect Taittinger. The bank has agreed to take a minority stake to allow members of the family, a group led by Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, managing director of the house, to buy back the label bearing their name. The bank would later sell its stake back to the family.

But the brand could draw a throng of suitors. Taittinger is well known, and the house comes with about 692 acres of vineyards. Some financial analysts estimate Taittinger's value at more than $900 million, including production and distribution operations and the company's Napa Valley wine operation, Domaine Carneros.

So far, two bidders -- Credit Agricole and Frere -- have expressed an interest in bidding on the Taittinger wine empire.

Analysts expect private-equity bidders to jump in as well, perhaps in tandem with beverage-industry companies.

Frere, who announced his interest in Taittinger in July, is taking advantage of a family rift. The Taittinger clan split when it sold its stakes in the family's wine and hotel operations. The Belgian financier has persuaded some family members to join forces with him -- including Claude Taittinger, the vice president of the label and Pierre-Emmanuel's uncle; and Pierre-Christian Taittinger, mayor of Paris's 16th arrondissement.

A savvy dealmaker, Frere has used his holding companies to buy up stakes in some of Europe's biggest corporations. Some in Champagne fear he is acting as a short-term speculator, at odds with the industry's long-term horizons. Others fear he may be in cahoots with LVMH, already the bigger player with brands like Dom Perignon and Moet et Chandon.