US: Wine poll shows support for "truth-in-labelling"

A US survey has revealed that a vast majority of wine purchasers in the country strongly support truth-in-labelling.

The poll, conducted by Peter Hart Research Associates for the Center for Wine Origins, showed that consumers believe the specific place name of a wine region should only appear on a bottle's label if the wine is produced in that location.

Of those surveyed, 79% agreed that consumers deserve protection from deceptive claims on food and beverage labels and 63% support a law prohibiting misleading labels as a way of protecting the names of global wine regions such as Napa Valley and Sonoma County

"As the global market is moving towards greater protection of the names of all agricultural products, including wine, US laws and regulations are clearly out of sync with the consumers they aim to protect," said Center for Wine Origins director Shannon Hunt. "The results of this poll show that American wine drinkers increasingly reject the practice of purposeful mislabelling by some US wine producers."

As part of the US-EU Wine Accord signed in March 2006, a ban was put in place against the introduction into the US marketplace of new labels using any of 17 place names - including Champagne, Port and Sherry - unless the wines are produced in those regions.

Since then, the second round of Wine Accord talks has begun. However, no progress has been made in ending the misleading labelling practices of many brands currently on the market, the centre said.

The results of the poll come on the heels of many other efforts to protect wine place names over the last two years. Napa Valley took a case all the way to the Supreme Court to successfully protect their name. Similarly, Sonoma County enacted legislation with the help of the California General Assembly to protect their name from misuse.