Producers are fortified for a name game with the EU, says Ben
Canaider.

THE names we have for so long — and so automatically — used for a number of Australian fortified wines are set to change at the end of the month.

The fortified wine code of practice sub-committee of the Winemakers' Federation of Australia will release its new names for the following wine styles: sherry, fino, amontillado, oloroso, port and tokay. And why? Under a trade agreement with the European Union these names will no longer be permitted on Australian wine labels. The word "rancio" (a tasting term used for fortified wines) is to be banned, too.

The changes have been a long time coming — the trade agreement has been thrashed out over 10 years. But now that they are nearly here it seems, in some ways, a bit odd, and a bit silly.

With regard to Spain and Portugal, one has to wonder why such universal and generic terms such as "port" and "sherry" need to be dragged back into protective custody. At this rate I'm likely to get a cease and desist letter the next time I "hoover" the carpets with a Sanyo vacuum cleaner.

Yet one can also see why terms that are clothed in so much cultural, historic and geographic specificity need to be shown some respect. The keenest example of this probably relates to Champagne's champagne. Champagne, nowadays, comes from Champagne; and if you are fool enough to enter a wine bar and call locally made sparkling white wine "champagne" then you are clearly not going to get on the resident sommelier's Christmas card list.

Australian fortified winemakers, through the auspices of the Winemakers' Federation, are using the change as an opportunity to reinvigorate Australian wine drinkers' perception and appreciation of the styles involved.

With a Federal Government grant of $500,000, the federation has engaged a market research company to gauge awareness and interest in these wine styles — and to find a pool of possible new names. It's good to see the Australian wine industry turning a negative into a positive, but it has been a tricky business.

The EU originally wanted to include some other terms on its exclusivity list: ruby, tawny, vintage, cream, crusted and solera were all targeted. That was clearly a bit rich.

The EU delegates might as well have plonked an English dictionary on the bargaining table, with the comment "No".

One particularly annoying late inclusion was the term "tokay". Hungary joined the EU in 2007, and made an ambient claim on the exclusivity of the term "tokay" (with reference to wine); other EU members supported the claim as an act of goodwill towards the new member. The losers have been Australian fortified tokay producers, particularly those in Rutherglen, who, over the past decade, have done much to institute a classification system for not only their own tokays and muscats, but those made anywhere in Australia. Four tiers of quality for these two fortified wine styles have become accepted and understood by many consumers both in Australia and in the important and ever-growing markets of the US and Britain: Australian, Classic, Grand, and Rare (Rare being the poshest.)

Colin Campbell, from Campbell's in Rutherglen, makers of fortified wines, is a man you might imagine to be a bit put out by these developments. Quite to the contrary, though, he is an active and hardworking member of the fortified wine code of practice sub-committee, and determined to use this re-naming opportunity to continue to stir interest in Australian fortified wines, locally and internationally.

Campbell is also confident that the new names devised by the sub-committee will be embraced by all Australian producers.

"We've got more than 160 names to consider at this stage, and we've drawn on all and everything for inspiration in this regard," he says. "And one of the really positive objectives of this code is to find new communications strategies that help these fortified wines — whatever their new names might be — find new interest with drinkers, with retailers, with the industry and the media in general."

I'm similarly optimistic about the future of our fortified wines. New names can only help to make them even more unique. The name of the market research company commissioned to work on this project augurs well in itself: Ruby Cha Cha.

Campbell says they'd be delighted to hear from anyone with an idea for new names.

Contact them at www.rubychacha.com.au.

But be quick. Time is running out.