Wine Law

WINE PROMOTION 285 so-called “new world” wines. For example, the American Viticultural Area (AVA) regulations allow the use up of 25% grape must from outside the viticultural area (§4.25 – Appellations of origin) 31 : “(b) Qualification—(1) American wine. An American wine is entitled to an appellation of origin other than a multicounty or multistate appellation, or a viticultural area, if: (i) At least 75 percent of the wine is derived from fruit or agricultural products grown in the appellation area indicated; (ii) it has been fully finished (except for cellar treatment pursuant to §4.22(c), and blending which does not result in an alteration of class or type under §4.22(b)) in the United States, if labeled “American”; or, if labeled with a State appellation, within the labeled State or an adjacent State; or if labeled with a county appellation, within the State in which the labeled county is located; and (iii) it conforms to the laws and regulations of the named appellation area governing the composition, method of manufacture, and designation of wines made in such place.”. Another example is the year of harvest, with wines in Europe being allowed to contain up to 15% of another vintage. The specification of each Geographical Indication will rule about it once it is permitted by the legislation. In fact, the cases above show how puzzling wine rules are. It is assumed that the consumers have access to each country’s national legislations, thus being aware of those rules and not misled, which is a fallacy. The next topic deals with the limits in the promotion of wine, following two approaches, one related to the public promotions and the second one dealing with the common practices in restrained promotions. 3. LIMITS ON PUBLIC WINE PROMOTION Public promotion deals with marketing campaigns, using media channels in which there is no control over the people exposed. Since the promoter (sender) has no means to avoid that such message does not reach individuals not eligible to drink wine, its content must be adequate. 31 Source : https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi- bin/retrieveECFR?gp=&SID=5b50f9bae79094b65bcb2bc9c3b70bcf&mc=true&n=pt27.1.4&r=PART& ty=HTML#se27.1.4_125, accessed on 30 April 2020.