According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal,(registration required) the United States and Australia are likely to triumph in the WTO and then everyone will have to agree that the bubbly, white wine produced in either of the two former colonies is Champagne and not merely Sparkling Wine.
The EU has been pushing protection over regional products including cheeses, wines and meat for many years. The EU wants to continue the tradition of limiting the title of Champagne to sparkling wine products produced in the Champagne region of France.
Of course, the grapes used to make Champagne in the U.S. are often identical to the ones grown in France. Even if the method of production is identical and the U.S. wineries are founded by immigrants from French wine making regions, the EU is convinced that Terroir cannot be exported. Terroir is a French language term for all the characteristics of the vineyard site thought to be imparted to a particular wine. It is a term that includes geographic, geological, climatic and other attributes that can affect an area of growth as small as a few square metres.
The E.U. maintains the view that consumers expect any wine labeled as Champagne to be from a specific part of France. They deny that there is any significant population that thinks champagne is merely wine with bubbles. Most winemakers and vineyard managers agree that Terroir exists (with such a broad definition, how could it not exist?). However, few accept the idea that the French government should be picking the winners and losers in the world wine market.
As you can expect, the biggest proponents of the Theory of Terroir are winemakers from France and to a lesser extent Napa Valley. Winemakers from Oklahoma, Texas, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, etc. are expected to stay out of existing wine markets and develop their own product names. The fact that the vast majority of wine buyers would have NO IDEA what they contain, is apparently not a problem. So long as the status quo is maintained, wine snobs can be properly protected from the foxy new world posers that threaten their way of life.
Oklahoma residents will be glad to know that beer varities are still free to be brewed anywhere in the world. I say, if the French are so convinced that wine buyers only want Champagne from France, they should put made-in-France on the label and then let the market speak.
Although the WTO has not reached a final decision, the WSJ thinks it is likely to allow a new breed of winemakers entry into the lucrative Champagne market. This should be good news for states like Oklahoma and Missouri that currently produce sparkling wines, if state regulators go along.
Sadly, rich, powerful, international lobbies are at work on issues like this and even if they lose in the WTO, you can bet that they will counter attack at the Federal and State government levels. Ultimately, the chances for the extremely small and underfunded U.S. wineries outside of California to compete against these international lobbies is very small.
I predict the only real winners will come in states (and countries like Australia) whose governments have recognized the positive economic impact of supporting their fledgling wine industries. (Hat tip to the: IP News Blog, courtesy of the Pierce Law IP Mall, for the WSJ link.)
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