Winemakers from Victoria’s King Valley traveled to Canberra on Tuesday to lobby parliamentarians to protect their use of the prosecco grape variety name. Australian winemakers are “not giving any ground” against the European Union, which does not want exporters to sell foods trademarked under geographical indicators as a condition in Australia’s free trade deal.
Australian Grape and Wine is a producer representative organization leading the campaign against the name ban. Chief executive Lee Mclean said the European Union wanted to use the Australia EU Free Trade Agreement to ban Australian producers from using the variety name.
“The fact is, prosecco is a grape variety name, just like chardonnay or cabernet sauvignon,” Mr McLean said.
“The European Union’s approach to this issue is motivated by a desire to protect Italian producers from the competition and nothing more.”
In 2009, Italy changed the name of the prosecco grape variety to “glera” within the European Union.nIf the condition is agreed upon as part of Australia’s EU free trade deal, Australian winemakers could have to use “glera” or “Australian prosecco” on labels. Most Australian prosecco is produced in Victoria’s King Valley and Murray Valley where many winemakers have invested heavily in the grape variety.
Pizzini Wines owner Alfred Pizzini said this was not the first time winemakers had been to Canberra to state their case.
“It’s been an ongoing conversation with government,” Mr Pizzini said.
“This is coming to a pinnacle because the free trade arrangements are negotiated as we speak and could be finalized over the next six months.”
Mr Pizzini estimated the King Valley needed to plant up to 50 hectares of prosecco each year to keep up with demand and the loss of the name would have economic impacts on exports.
“In the short term it would be economically damaging, but we’ve got to be careful not to give any ground because it’s the use of the name of a grape variety,” he said.
“I think one of the potential problems we will have, a lot of export of prosecco goes through Singapore ports.
“If we lose that name, there’s a good chance we will lose the opportunity to send prosecco through Singapore.”
Victorian winemakers fear the loss of the name prosecco could lead to further grape variety names being banned in Australia. Brown Brothers winemaker Katherine Brown told ABC Radio they would stand strong against Italy.
“Champagne is a method and it’s made in a certain way and we understand the French want to keep that as their own, but prosecco is a grape variety,” Ms Brown said.
“Italians have created a region in Italy called prosecco and they are claiming now that sparkling wine that comes from there is the only wine that can have prosecco on it and the rest of us who have been using prosecco grapes need to find another name.”