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U.S. vintners bubbly over wine agreement with EU

“The Europeans will be out to force the grandfathered California wineries to cease and desist in their use of terms like champagne and bordeaux on their labels.”

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But next round of negotiations on label copy could cause winemakers to experience a hangover.

Gary Heck, president and owner of Korbel Champagne Cellars, is out of the woods for the moment. His Guerneville, CA, winery doesn’t have to spend millions changing the labels on his champagnes to read something like “Kava.”

So, too, have other U.S. winemakers been given a reprieve, maybe only temporarily, to continue using 16 semi-generic wine names such as burgundy, chablis, champagne, and chianti on their bottle labels.

That was the big victory won by American vintners in the recent U.S.-European Union agreement on wine trade signed in March. In addition, that agreement, permanently, allows U.S. wines sold in Europe to abide by American standards for pure grape content when it comes to putting merlot, chardonnay, and other grape varieties on the labels of their wines.

However, the agreement was notable, too, for what it did not contain: a prohibition against European wines using a Napa appellation on their bottles. California has a state law preventing such wines from being sold within its borders. But sales in the other 49 states are allowed.

Bottle battle could be next

Nothing in the U.S.-EU agreement touched on packaging. But Jim Clawson, CEO of JBC International, a Washington, D.C. consulting group, says the next round of U.S.-EU negotiations, scheduled to begin this summer, could include a French assault on U.S. use of certain bottle types. This stems from a regulation the EU passed in 2002 which included a provision that prohibits non-EU members from using a list of traditional bottle types.

Clawson explains that these are bottles that U.S. vintners do not use. “But that was a camel’s nose under the tent,” he explains. The U.S. initially threatened to sue the EU over that bottle exclusion regulation, but eventually backed off. However, the U.S. is continuing to pursue its objections within the World Trade Organization (WTO).

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