I don’t think Australian winemakers should make too much of a fuss that they didn’t get the blending rules they wanted as part of the new US-Australia free trade agreement. Currently, Australian winemakers are required to be 85% correct with respect to claims on labels concerning region, variety and vintage. This means that a wine labelled Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2000 could legally contain 14% of McLaren Vale shiraz from 2002. As part of the new agreement, the US has refused to budge from the labelling demands it places on its own producers, which require varietal names to be 75% correct, but vintage claims to be 95% correct. This means that while Australians already comply handsomely with the varietal demands, they might have to tighten their act with respect to vintage. In an ideal theoretical world, these requirements would all be 100% for everything, but through no fault of any maker, life in a winery doesn’t work out that way. Wine being matured in barrels evaporates constantly, and when stored upright, barrels need constant topping up. So winemakers, small ones especially, often deploy current vintage wine to top up evaporating barrels of older material. It’s then difficult to keep track of the precise proportions of younger material in a given wine. Honestly, if the Americans can do it, so can we (and there is no implicit criticism of American winemakers behind this remark). In a small number of cases, it might require a little more attention, but what the heck? Our wines should reflect their grape, their place and their year. In my view, the current 85% restriction for region, variety and vintage already gives makers far too much leeway to change the nature of their wines. Most Australian winemakers, I hasten to add, operate at levels as close to the ideal as possible. Furthermore, before the completion of Australia’s agreement with the EU, Australian wine had to be 95% correct with respect to vintage anyway. At this moment in time, I suggest that any effort being made to further improve the international image of diligence and the credibility of Australian wine is a constructive one indeed.
