Austin Nichols and Co, the US giant that produces Wild Turkey Bourbon, has sets its sights on tiny Queensland wine producer Mt Tamborine for continuing to label its ruby port as Bush Turkey Port, despite requests to the contrary. Central to the US case is the assumption that those living downunder cannot distinguish between a home-grown ruby port and an imported bottle of bourbon. Furthermore, as anyone with half a clue about ornithology will tell you, the two birds in question have an entirely different size and appearance. One is native to the US, the other is indigenous to Australia. It will be a sad day for Australia if a small local business that is 100% doing the right thing is told what to do by a company whose goods are imported here, especially without a shard of intellectual sustainability to their case! It is nothing less than preposterous to think that Bush Turkey Port could affect Wild Turkey sales, especially since 98% of it is sold at the cellar door near the Gold Coast. Much of this case appears to revolve around the judgement of one Dominic Piperno, group manager for Australian Liquor Marketers, Wild Turkey’s Australian agent. There exists a possibility that ALM itself has been purchasing Bush Turkey Port from Mt Tamborine for around two years, although in a statutory declaration signed late last year, Mr Piperno denies ever having seen the wine offered for sale. Mt Tamborine claims that ALM’s most recent purchase of Bush Turkey Port was on January 11 this year. Hmmm!
