Australian Wineries in Renaming Conundrum.  Add/Read Comments

Several years after the word champagne disappeared from the labels of Australian sparkling wines, the days of port wine, sherry and tokay are coming to an end.

The Australian
"From 2007, fans of tawny port must content themselves with just a tawny, and sherry buffs with a glass of dry, medium or sweet. Lovers of an Australian tokay have 10 years before they will be ordering a liqueur muscadelle.

The changes are a result of more than a decade of often difficult trade talks between Australian and European Union negotiators over the rules concerning geographic wine names.

"The sherries are a bigger problem because currently the alternative words are fino (dry), oloroso (medium) and amontillado (sweet)," said Australian Winemakers Federation director of international and regulatory affairs Tony Battaglene.

"We're still trying to come up with better terms. We know we have a big task ahead of us and we're developing a fortified-wine strategy."