Wine Law

17 autumn of 2015, winemakers from the Slovenian and Italian sides of the Karst have been negotiating the possibility of extending the existing PDO “Teran” to the entire Karst plateau, where identical soil and climate conditions give the specific characteristics to the wine produced there. On the Italian side of the Karst plateau, wine with the characteristics of Teran wine is produced mainly by members of Slovene ethnic minority in Italy 55 . 6. Conclusion The issue of homonymous names for wine and for grape varieties is a complex one in practice. Geographical indications easily obtain a more common, generic meaning in their everyday use. Names of varietal wines, on the other hand, can also acquire a geographic connotation if the wine is typically produced in a specific region. The distinction between different wine grape varieties is often not clear, since several synonyms may be used for the same variety, and these also give names to varietal wines. All this can easily lead to emergence of homonymous names for different wines that may be in conflict particularly with indirect geographical indications, not containing an express reference to a geographical name. To prevent confusion and at the same time respect the traditional naming of wines and grape varieties, the legal regulation cannot be clear-cut but must permit a certain level of flexibility for solving individual cases by considering all the legitimate interests. The protection of geographical indications in Europe is generally strong, as the EU is one of the main proponents of this type of protection of products. The EU legislation favours geographical indications over varietal terms if there is a conflict between them due to homonymity. However, exceptions are needed in this situation as well, and the earlier geographical indication does not enjoy an absolutely protected position, especially when it comes to the labelling of wine also protected by a geographical indication. The case of “Teran” did not concern a conflict between two PDO’s but a homonymy between a PGO and a grape variety name that was in practice also used as the name of a 55 Press release of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food of Slovenia, 17 November 2020, available in: https://www.gov.si/novice/2020-11-17-slovenija-se-ne-bo-pritozila-na-odlocitev-sodisca-eu-glede- izjeme-pri-oznacevanju-vina-teran/ ( last accessed on 23.12.2020).