Napa Fights China

Filed in archive Wine News on May 30, 2007

California wine makers have been working on getting their wines over the China for some time. Obviously, it's a hop skip and a jump from California, just across the ocean, but also, it is a huge (huge) market. However, among the many cultural issues they've had to deal with is now another problem mixed in, that of borrowing the name of "napa" for Chinese wines that are not really "Napa." Clear as mud?

From Napa Vintners Confront The China Wine Syndrome:

With their freshly minted Geographic Indication (GI) status firmly in hand and giving them some global clout, Napa Valley vintners are now preparing to go after those in China who they feel are infringing upon their hard-won terroir status.

According to Linda Reiff, executive director of the Napa Valley Vintners, the region's powerful marketing organization has already filed actions of trademark oppositions against brands in China.

Chinese wine producers, who have released products in that country under such brand names as "Napa Valley," "Napa," and "Valley Napa," have been targeted, Reiff told Appellation America. Those brands, Reiff insisted, do not have any grapes from the Napa Valley in their bottles.

"There are brands in Spain, Italy, Germany, the UK and around the world, and we're going after about 30, especially in China," said Reiff, before it was officially announced at the German Consulate in San Francisco that the Napa Valley had been sanctioned GI status by the European Union.

Napa Valley, which produces only about 4 percent of all California wine but generates about 25 percent of the state's wine revenues, is the first such wine area outside the EU to receive the indication. Many believe it is the most important wine appellation in the U.S.