Brands are increasingly swinging on the coat tails of Provence rosé’s success by designing their bottles to look like pink expressions from the region, and naming their wines with words that sound like ‘Provence’.
“Because of our success in the international market we are more and more emulated. In a way it’s flattering, but if they put our name on the bottle then it becomes a legal issue,” said Brice Eymard, directeur général, Vins de Provence.
“We’ve noticed there has been a sharp increase in instances, with more every year. We are seeing copycat cases from other nations, and also from within France – even from within Provence itself from producers that don’t adhere to DO rules.”
Provence’s famously pale pink wines account for around one million of the 24million hectolitres of rosé produced annually around the world, but in order for a wine to be classified as an ‘official’ Provence rosé it must comply with a host of parameters set out by Vins de Provence (CIVP), the organisation responsible for protecting the reputation and quality of the region’s wines, and combatting fraud.
According to the rulebook, a wine must contain less than 3g residual sugar, and use a minimum of two grape varieties...
Click HERE to read the full article.