“It doesn’t feel good”: Australian prosecco growers called on to fight for their rights to the name

Australian wine grape growers and winemakers are being urged to tell the federal government how much is at stake if the Europeans claim ownership of the name “prosecco”.

Australian wine grape growers and winemakers are being urged to tell the federal government how much is at stake if the Europeans claim ownership of the name “prosecco”.

A formal public objections process was launched on Friday to give the wine industry a chance to respond to a list of 50 new wine geographical indications the Europeans are wanting Australia to recognise, the most contentious being prosecco.

The list has come about as Australia and the EU renegotiate the Australia-European Community Agreement on Trade in Wine – commonly referred to as the Wine Agreement – and a wide ranging free-trade agreement that’s expected to be finalised later this year.

Australian Grape and Wine chief executive Lee McLean wants every wine grower and retailer to make a submission to protect not only prosecco, but other grape varieties that could be laid claim to if the Europeans were to succeed in their fight to own prosecco.

“We need all hands on deck to show how serious we are about the issue. This is critically important for winemakers using other varieties also, we can’t have a precedent sent now that will come back to bite us in the future,” Mr McLean said.

Unlike Champagne, which is a region of France and a traditional way of making sparkling wine, prosecco is a grape variety. The Italians however created a Prosecco region 14 years ago, spanning a town by the same name near the border of Italy and Slovenia and Veneto, which is northwest of Venice, where some of Italy’s biggest prosecco makers call home in the hills north of Treviso.

Justin Jarrett of See Saw Wines in NSW’s Orange is disappointed he has to fight to continue using the prosecco name for his wine. Picture: Wine Australia

Wine grape growers and winemakers Justin and Pip Jarrett invested in prosecco 13 years ago as a way of “future-proofing” their winery See Saw Wine in Orange, NSW.

“It grows well in cool climate regions and it really suits Australian food. We’ve built our business on prosecco and it’s been very successful, it’s poured at the Opera House. Now the EU says you can’t do this anymore? I feel the Australian government has to stand up to them,” Justin said.

“We bought prosecco vines, a variety that has existed for hundreds of years. We’ve made this a pillar of our business. And this (the EU’s claim to a prosecco GI) doesn’t feel good.”

This is the second time prosecco has been the subject of a federal government public objections process in 10 years. The Registrar of Trademarks upheld Australia’s objection to the EU’s application to register the Italian geographical indication Prosecco in Australia in December 2013.

At the time the win was described as a “triumph of common sense” by Winemakers’ Federation of Australia chief executive Paul Evans.

Prosecco was first planted in Australia by the Dal Zotto family in Victoria’s King Valley, with their first commercial vintage in 2004.

The Australian industry is now worth more than $200 million and is grown across 20 winemaking regions.