Wine Law

23 The issue brough up may be resolved: designations of origin provided for in the Regulation relating to designations of quality agricultural products and foodstuffs — both in the current 2102 one and in the previous regulations — replace national regulations insofar as they seek to protect products whose quality is linked to its origin. National regulations will have to limit themselves to regulating necessary procedural matters. At this stage it might be appropriate to discuss the exhaustiveness of the European protection system for wine and spirit drinks designations. Until recently, it seemed well-established that the view— upheld by various court judgements at the time — that the exhaustiveness of the European protection scheme of “ordinary” designations of origin, meaning those of agricultural products and foodstuffs ex current 2012 Regulation) could not be passed onto the protection scheme of geographical designations of wines and spirit drinks. It might be worth noting here the modification on the part of the European Court of Justice as it heard the Port Charlotte case; a rectification which, to my mind, appears to be a most reasonable adaptation to the true aims of current legislation. To start with, the content of Regulation No. 479/2008 sought to replace national schemes for the protection of designations within the internal wine market with the European one. The same would be true of the current regulation. As established by introductory statement 29 of the 2008 Regulation, Regulation No. 1308/2013, currently regulating these designations, argues in introductory statement 94 that “to qualify for protection in the Union, designations of origin and geographical indications for wine should be recognised and registered at the Union level in accordance with procedural rules laid down by the Commission”. Should anyone be tempted to think that the uniformity and exclusivity of the protection scheme of designations of origin covered by European law had been treated evenly, no matter the scope of the designation, we should affirm that that has not always been the case. As far as wine and spirit drinks designations are concerned, we have witnessed to a great deal of swaying on the part of courts. It has questioned that these designations may be as comprehensive as those