Trade minister flies to EU to fight for Aussie prosecco

Australian Trade Minister Simon Birmingham has flown to Europe to fight for local vignerons' right to keep calling their wine "prosecco".

Birmingham will meet with EU officials in Brussels for the latest round of negotiations. 

Sources have confirmed to the Sydney Morning Herald that the government has managed to ditch an EU proposal that would have forced Australian producers to use the name "prosecco-like" to meet demands Italy for exclusive naming rights.

Instead, a compromise that could see locally produced wine labelled "Australian prosecco" is now a "live option". 

Some Italian-French inspired Australian made wines such as Moscato could also be affected by the negotiations. 

Brown Brothers has seen a 50% growth in prosecco sales year-on-year, with Brown Family Wine Group executive director Ross Brown saying the move by Italy was about "commercial expediency". 

"Twenty years ago we brought the grape variety to Australia," he said. "It's just so happened that style has had its day in the sunshine and now become quite fashionable."

Brown said the industry would be willing to discuss the compromise of "Australian prosecco".

Aussie winemakers' wish for prosecco

The Winemakers' Federation of Australia released a festive message late last year that noted "All we want for Christmas is Australian Prosecco".

It pleaded for 2019 to protect Australian winemakers' who've spent many years building their reputations as prosecco makers and are facing an uncertain future due to an EU push to restrict the use of the word "prosecco" to a region in Italy and require Australian winemakers to use the term "glera" instead.

Here's what the letter had to say:

Dear Santa,

This year for Christmas, the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia (WFA) would like greater protection for Australian wine producer’s rights to grow, produce and label their grape varieties.

The problem is the European Union continues to seek to restrict the use of a number of grape variety names to their own producers. These efforts have the potential to dramatically impact on the livelihood of Australian winemakers to produce and market our great wines. The European Union is seeking to prevent our use of prosecco and other grape varieties under our free trade agreement negotiations.

However, their reach is expanding. Just this week, the European Union have pressured New Zealand to try and restrict 2500 Geographical Indications to European producers. The New Zealand government is now forcing our producers to object to these names, to maintain our right, to export our traditional products to New Zealand.

Within the list, which we’ve checked twice, and published by the New Zealand government, are a number of terms that would stop our trade for some wines to New Zealand. We take this very seriously, and think it is well suited to the Naughty List.

Prosecco, and many other varieties at risk in this process, have grown hugely in popularity over recent years. The value they have, and can continue to contribute, to our domestic market, exports, regional communities, jobs and tourism cannot be understated. The EU understands this – and that is why they are looking to restrict our ability to use these grape variety names.

We will be sure to leave out some Australian Prosecco for you to enjoy with your cookies, and encourage sparkling wine drinkers to drink responsibly, and support Australian wine producers, by choosing Australian Prosecco to enjoy with family and friends this Christmas. We need all Australian consumers to get behind us in this battle.