Australia banned from using geographical indicators on labels
IN A new development to labelling, Australian winemakers have been banned from using the words Champagne, Port and Sherry on their labels under a major EU deal.
Decanter reports that wine producers have a year to phase out the names of wines based on geographic locations, which are protected under the EU labelling regime.
Any sparkling wine made outside France’s Champagne region may no longer be labelled as Champagne. Other names included in the ban, which applies to the entire wine world, are Burgundy, Chablis, Graves and Sauternes, though Tokay will be allowed to appear on labels outside of the Hungarian region for another 10 years.
John McDonnell, manager of Wine Australia, Ireland, was relaxed about the new ruling. “We haven’t got a bloody nose. Style indicators are being phased out anyway and most winemakers understand the reasoning behind the ban – it’s a growing-up phase for the Australian wine industry.’”
Bordeaux 2010 is shaping up well
REPORTS from the most famous of French Wine producing regions in the world indicate that the harvest for Bordeaux 2010 is in really good shape. A mainly dry and cool springtime in Bordeaux finished with a period of some heavy rain in mid-June. Now the hope is that a finally flourish of rain will seal the deal for the harvest and give the vines that last burst.
The near perfect Summer conditions continued right up until the month of July when there were more hours of sunshine than usual as August was fine and hot, especially for the last ten days, and encouraged a good start to ripening.
This fine weather enabled the vines to make up for time lost during the flowering period. If they continue, these excellent summer weather conditions promise a superb vintage. However, the early lack of water in some areas may cause the ripening process to come to a halt, so some light rainfall would be welcome.
Harvests of white grapes began in the last few days and the reports show that they are in excellent condition and with red grapes in the finally stages of ripening, 2010 could indeed be all it is built up to be for the Bordeaux region.