PM invites EU leaders to pay a visit to Aussie prosecco growers

It’s crunch time for the battle over use of the prosecco name, and Australia is not kowtowing to the Europeans.

Australian prosecco growers could play host to Europe’s most powerful leaders next year as the battle over the right to use the prosecco name enters its final stages.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has invited European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel to meet prosecco producers when they visit Australia next year as part of negotiations underway on a free-trade agreement between Australia and the EU.

Mr Albanese said he was hopeful the European Commission would send their leaders to Australia early next year as negotiations on the trade deal near completion.

“I’ve invited them to come out and meet with business, including in the agricultural sector, next year,” Mr Albanese said.

Lee McLean, Australian Grape & Wine chief executive.

The Prime Minister was asked in parliament this week what the federal government was doing to protect Australian prosecco growers from the EU’s increasingly assertive claim to exclusive rights to the prosecco name.

“We know, in terms of the agricultural sector in particular, that nations such as France and Italy have been very protective of particular labels of products. But the truth is that prosecco is a product which is produced not just in Italy, just like how roses are grown in lots of places around the world and they’re still roses. We will advance Australia’s national interest and negotiate in good faith with the European Union,” he said.

Australia is one of the few countries to stand up to the Europeans’ request to claim ownership of a range of “geographical indications”, including prosecco, feta and manchego.

Unlike Champagne, which is a region of France and a longstanding method of making sparkling wine particular to the region, prosecco is a grape variety.

In 2009 Italy moved the goalposts by creating a Prosecco region that spanned from the biggest producers north west of Venice to a town called Prosecco – which did not have any orchards at the time – on the very eastern edge of the Italian border and began calling the grape variety a little used synonym called glera.

Australian Grape and Wine chief executive Lee McLean said Australia should not have to compromise on the issue and add labelling requirements because prosecco was a grape variety planted in the King Valley 23 years ago in good faith by Australian growers.

“The concern goes beyond prosecco itself. What happens after that? If you start compromising on grape variety names, what if you have a vineyard full of sangiovese or vermentino, all those names are at risk,” he said.

Mr McLean feared prosecco was one of the final sticking points of the deal, and hoped the Australian industry wouldn’t be sacrificed to get the agreement over the line.

Federal Indi MP Helen Haines said Australia needed to stand firm on the issue.

“I think the story belongs very solidly to the people of Australia as much as it does to the Italians,” Ms Haines said. “We need to be really clear that we can’t trade off the name here.”

Trade Minister Don Farrell will leave this week for Brussels to advocate for the conclusion of the free trade agreement, which he described as “one of our highest trade policy priorities”.

Australia’s first prosecco grower, Otto Dal Zotto, was among a group of producers who travelled to Canberra last week to convey just how important keeping the prosecco name was to the industry.

“We asked them not to use us as a bargaining chip to clinch the deal. What we want is a fair go. I didn’t want to do anything wrong, and I believe I haven’t done so since I planted prosecco in Australia.

“It was never on my mind I was going to out-do the Italians, it was just to get people here in Australia to appreciate a nice glass of prosecco,” Mr Dal Zotto said.