Wine News: Say No Clos.

In society and pop culture, proper names of products can oftentimes become everyday words to describe a whole group of things.  Kinda like when you blow your nose, you use a Kleenex, even though the tissue might not have been made by the Kleenex company.  Or at the office, I go to make a Xerox of my resume, even if the copy machine is made by Canon.

When it comes to wine, a lot of people order a glass of Champagne, not realizing that sparkling wine made outside of the Champagne region of France is not supposed to be called Champagne.  Another wine region in France, Chablis, is known for wonderful wines made of Chardonnay and when California wineries have used the term Chablis on their labels, the French wine industry was up in arms. 

The European wine community has vigilantly fought the use of their geographic designations to describe entire lines of wine.  It makes sense, after all, Champagne and Chablis are the actual names of places on a map of France.  If someone in Washington made a wine called “California”, I think it would be cause for complaint.

That said, I’m not sure what to make of the European Commission’s latest ruling on wine labeling.  According to this article at MiamiHerald.com, the E.C. has decided to ban the importation of US made wines that have the words ‘Clos’ or ‘Chateau’ on their labels.

Those French words, as well as the terms ”classic,” ”tawny,” ”noble,” ”ruby” and ”vintage” are all regulated wine terms in Europe, and the E.C. feels the US wine industry needs to follow the same rules when it comes to wine labels in order to avoid consumer confusion.

“”Their justification is that these terms are traditionally used in specific countries and that if other countries used these terms, it creates confusion on the part of consumers,” said Joe Rollo, export director for the San Francisco-based trade group Wine Institute.”

Obviously US wine brands like Clos Du Bois and Chateau St. Jean will have to figure something out if they want to be distributed in Europe.

It’s all very troubling, I’m reaching for a Kleenex now.