Wine Law

12 appear on the label of a product bearing a protected designation of origin or geographical indication (of an EU Member State or a third country). For grapevine products that do not bear a protected designation of origin or protected geographical indication, Member States may decide to use the terms “varietal wine” supplemented by the name of the Member State concerned and/or the name of the wine grape variety. However, such indication of the grape variety name is not permissible where the name is homonymous with a protected designation of origin or protected geographical indication. To sum up, EU law in principle prohibits the use of homonymous grape variety names in labelling of wine. Exceptions to this rule apply only for specific grape variety names that have traditionally been used in labelling of certain varietal wines and are listed as such in the annex to the delegated regulation. However, exceptions apply only where the wine in question is itself entitled to a protected designation of origin or a protected geographical indication. Any lower quality varietal wines cannot contain homonymous grape variety names in their labelling. The list of exceptions may be modified by the Commission only to take into account established labelling practices of new Member States, following their accession to the EU (Article 50(3) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/33). Such modification by the Commission of the list of exceptions following the accession of Croatia to the EU was what triggered the action of Slovenia against the Commission in the dispute over Teran wine. 5. Dispute over Teran 5.1. Background When Slovenia joined the European Union in 2004, amongst the wine names protected by the national legislation was the designation “Kras, Teran”, which referred to a red wine traditionally produced from the Refošk grape variety grown solely on the rocky Karst plateau (Slovene: Kras , Italian: Carso ). Slovenia notified its list of quality wines to the European Commission, which included it in an updated list of quality wines produced in specified regions, published in Official Journal in 2006 40 . The designation was initially 40 OJ C 41, 17.2.2006, pp. 1-80.