Europe Gets Protection in New Wine Accord With Australia

The accord signed today in Brussels specifies when Australia will phase out terms such as Champagne, Port, Claret and Sherry, the European Commission said in a statement. It also outlines the conditions for Australia to continue to use certain quality wine terms such as “vintage,” “cream” and “tawny” to describe wines exported to Europe and sold domestically.

 

“Crucially, we have obtained protection for our geographical indications and traditional expressions, which was of the utmost importance for European producers,” said EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel.

For Australian producers, it means “simpler recognition of winemaking techniques and simpler labeling requirements,” Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith said.

 

Mass-produced wines from California, Australia and South Africa are flooding into Europe, putting a tradition of smaller, often family-run wineries at risk. The 27-nation EU makes three- fifths of the world’s wine.

 

In a push to make European wines more competitive, cut excess supply and improve quality, the EU last December approved a plan to end subsidies for distillation and storage, increase aid for marketing, pay growers to tear out 175,000 hectares (432,000 acres) of vines yielding low-quality grapes and abolish planting restrictions.

Today’s wine deal, which the EU called “the most comprehensive agreement ever concluded with a third country,” replaces a 1994 accord between the two governments.

 

Australian wine exports to the EU were worth 950 million euros ($1.2 billion) last year while the bloc’s shipments to Australia were worth 84 million euros.

 

Under the agreement, the usage of what the EU called “the misuse” of Champagne, Chablis, Sherry, Port, Burgundy, Graves, Manzanilla, Marsala, Moselle, Sauterne and White Burgundy will be phased out within a year after the accord enters into force. The phasing out for Tokay is 10 years.