Bureaucrats Look to Target Grape Names

Korbel California Champagne isn’t really Champagne. Most of us agree on that.

But can we at least agree that Korbel can make Chardonnay? Maybe not, if the European Union has its way.

The EU, which has previously dictated to Europeans such minutiae as the shapes of bananas and cucumbers, is now telling French farmers who have been using Vermentino for years that they may no longer call it that; only Italian wineries may now use the name “Vermentino”.

But Vermentino isn’t a place! It isn’t even a state of mind, though maybe it should be: light, breezy, slightly salty, refreshing: “Have a Vermentino Day.”

So according to this ruling, there is no Malbec in Argentina, no Pinot Noir in New Zealand, no Chenin Blanc in South Africa and no Cabernet Sauvignon in Napa?

The issue came up because Jacques Bilhac, the owner of Domaine d l’Aster in France’s Languedoc region, found out that the EU agreed with a request by Italian producers and decided to prevent vintners outside Italy from using the name Vermentino. The variety is actually more widely planted in France than in Italy; it appears in a lot of white blends in the south and even in some Provence rosés. Some producers bottle it on its own, but from this vintage they can’t call it Vermentino anymore. There is a French synonym, Rolle, but Bilhac says that it’s not as mellifluous. He’s right, but that’s not the point.

The point is, you can’t take away these grape names, EU. You can tell us that we can only buy Roquefort from Roquefort – fine, got it – but you CANNOT tell us we can’t call cow juice “milk” just because the word comes from High German.

Moreover, “Vermentino” by itself does NOT tell me what the wine is going to taste like – even from Italy! Vermentino from Sardinia is nothing like Vermentino from Maremma. That’s why place names are protected. So if the EU is going to say “Vermentino” only comes from one place, it needs to drill down and pick a place, not wave its hand at all 116,000 square miles of Italy.

I tip my hat to the Italians for mastering EU bureaucracy. They forced wineries in Greece’s island of Santorini to stop calling their dessert wines Vin Santo because the Italians asked the EU for the name first. The fact that “Santo” in Greece comes from the name of the island where it’s made – so it’s a place name, whereas in Italy it’s not – did not matter. Italy asked first.

And when Prosecco got hot, producers realized that Prosecco being both a grape and a region meant others outside Italy could make it, so they renamed the grape Glera to protect the place name.

I don’t really blame the Italians for asking. I blame the EU bureaucrats for not looking at them like Bruce Lee conducting a training session. They should have slapped the petitioners on the head and said: “What was that?”

Places and names

“I read the announcement and thought it was absurd,” said Jason Haas, proprietor of Tablas Creek in Paso Robles. Tablas Creek has made varietal Vermentino for years.

“The idea that the ‘Vermentino’ part of Vermentino di Sardegna is somehow a part of the geographical indicator is ridiculous on its face,” Haas told Wine-Searcher. “Otherwise, why would you need to say ‘di’ anywhere? What’s more, it would upend the international system of identifying grapes. Does this mean no one outside France could use Picpoul because of Picpoul de Pinet? Or the Germans and Alsatians would have to fight about who gets to use Gewurztraminer and Riesling?

“It seems like this maybe slipped through the cracks in France and people are only now realizing what it means. I can’t see it standing up to a French challenge. Even if it does, I can’t see the decision being respected outside of the EU. The [US government] won’t under current policy even approve a grape by a second name, so even if we wanted to call it Rolle, which we don’t, it wouldn’t pass TTB muster.”

I contacted the Wine Origins Alliance, which works to protect place names from Barossa to Yamanashi, and asked what they thought of the ruling. Nobody wanted to comment, because Vermentino is not a place.

In Australia, more than a dozen producers make Vermentino. Australian Grape & Wine, the national association of growers and producers, is not happy about the ruling.

“While we are still seeking clarification with regard to the legal basis for this decision, it is clear that Vermentino is a globally recognized grape variety name,” said Lee McLean, AG&W’s general manager of government relations and external affairs. “The EU’s willingness to throw away producers’ ability to use grape variety names at the stroke of a pen is an appalling act of protectionism that undermines longstanding rules and conventions relating to both Geographical Indications and grape variety names. Producers in France are completely justified to be frustrated and upset by this decision. “

McLean told Wine-Searcher that Australia and the EU are in the middle of negotiating a free-trade agreement.

“We are fighting hard to retain our ability to use the grape variety name Prosecco,” McLean said. “We have been telling our Government for some time that the EU’s decisions relating to Prosecco could be a precurser for similar protectionist decisions in the future and it would appear that Vermentino could be the next step in this process. Australian producers have every right to use the grape variety name Vermentino.”

So what’s next? Well, according to the book “Wine Grapes”, Vermentino is also grown in Lebanon, Malta, California, Texas (good luck there, EU), North Carolina, Virginia and Brazil.

As Haas says, it’s hard for me to see the US, which has fought for decades to protect Korbel’s right to misname its sparkling wines Champagne agreeing to go along with this.

But then again … did you know Korbel makes Prosecco now? I spotted it on the company website while working on this story. And you know what? They make it in Italy, in the Prosecco DOC.

Maybe that’s the future of wine: if you want to make Pinot Noir, you have to do it in Alsace. Otherwise, it’s just red wine with a high price and hints of mushrooms and soy sauce.