Chateau, Classic, Fine, Ruby

Some of the terms American wine-makers are no longer allowed to use if they wish to export their wines to Europe.

American vintners are seeking to overturn European Union legislation that, since March 2009, prohibits the use of certain descriptive words on their wine labels, Shannon Dininny reported for The Associated Press:

A classic or vintage American wine?

No such thing in European Union countries, where U.S. wineries have been barred from exporting any wines with labels that include any of a dozen traditional words or phrases to describe the wine or name the winery.

Among them: chateau, classic, fine, noble, ruby, superior,tawny, vintage and clos, which is the French word for closed.

There are, in fact, 15 forbidden terms on the list – the remaining embargoed descriptors are: cream, crusted/crusting, fine, late bottled vintage, sur lie and vintage character.

Jon Bonné reported on the history of this dispute in The Cellarist:

Europe and the U.S. have been locked in a trade tangle for years over naming, and this latest bout comes from the 2006 agreement that limited the use of such terms as “Chablis” and “Champagne” on American wines, thus preserving the geographic sanctity of those winegrowing regions. In return, American wineries got the OK to keep selling wines in Europe using some 15 non-geographic terms, or so-called “traditional expressions.”

According to Dininny:

Hundreds of U.S. wineries affected by the new rule now find themselves unable to export to more than 25 EU-member nations unless they have a trademark in that country, and some fear the trademark exception could be repealed later this year. …

A bipartisan group of lawmakers from 10 states, including top wine-producing states of California, Washington, Oregon and New York, on Wednesday [20 May] urged a U.S. trade representative to resolve the dispute.