European Union Extends U.S. Wine Restrictions

by Laura Malesich (RSS feed)
Apr 3rd 2009 at 9:01PM

After twenty years of grappling over the trade agreement between winemakers in Europe and the U.S., 2005 marked the beginning of a somewhat peaceful understanding between the two markets -- with a few conditions. At that time the words 'Champagne', 'Burgundy', 'Port' and 'Sherry' were no longer allowed to be used in America. Just this past month the EU added another restriction to American winemakers' verbage. Wines bearing these words on their labels will no longer be sold in Europe:

'chateau', 'classic', 'clos', 'cream', 'crusted/crusting', 'fine', 'late bottled vintage', 'noble', 'ruby', 'superior', 'sur lie', 'tawny', 'vintage' or 'vintage character.'

Bureaucracy at its finest. I certainly understand protecting rights to regions but not simple words with more than a location's name at heart.

Tags: american wine, AmericanWine, EU, europe, wine label, wine labels, wine language, WineLabel, WineLabels, WineLanguage