According to a report on Wines And Vines the EU have changed the labelling regulations to prohibit the use of certain terms by non-EU members. Those terms apparently include "chateau", "vintage" and "clos".
Now I'm 100% behind protecting specific regional terms that get abused in America, such as Champagne or Burgundy (and Cheddar for that matter), but we are talking about some generally accepted terms. The word Château is abused by the French as much as anyone; the majestic château on the label of Léoville-Barton is in fact the Château Langoa Barton. And Clos simply means a walled or enclosed vineyard.
In the end it's probably just another bargaining chip for the EU in trade negotiations; doubtless an agreement will eventually be thrashed out. With luck it'll end the "grandfathering" abuse of the terms above and we can all forget about it.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
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1 comments:
Yeah this is sorta lame, especially this late in the game. The come out now and start changing rules only goes to show the market share that is being lost by the French and their way of clinging to any hope of press when nobody wants to buy their wines.
-Domthesomm-
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