Let’s Drink To A Victory For Truth In Labeling

We never cease to be amazed how some people and companies like to take advantage of consumers, trying to pass off products as something that they are not, or playing games with the label so that we don’t know what is actually in the product.

So it was with a certain satisfaction that we saw that the California Supreme Court has ruled that for a wine to claim a Napa Valley origin, 75 percent of it must be made up of grapes actually grown in the region. The ruling confirms an existing California law that had been challenged by companies that included Bronco Wine Co, which makes “Two Buck Chuck,” the popular $1.99 wines from the Charles Shaw vineyards sold by Trader Joe’s.

Bronco also makes Napa Ridge, Rutherford Vintners and Napa Creek wines from grapes grown outside the Napa Valley. The origin of the grapes is printed on the front and back labels, but in smaller print than the brand names. And if you didn’t know any better, you might assume that a wine made elsewhere actually came from the prestigious Napa region – which would be wrong.

Napa vintners applauded the ruling, saying it supported their contention that grapes grown in the region are inherently different from grapes grown elsewhere, which allows them to charge more.

What’s interesting about this issue is that Bronco seems to be perfectly happy arguing in favor of a technicality rather than in favor of the truth. It’s entire case seems built on the fact that federal law allows brands using the Napa name before 1986 to use the name, even if they contain little or no Napa grapes. California law closed that loophole, but Bronco argues that federal law should always trump state law, and has said it will appeal the ruling in federal court.

What’s extraordinary about the whole challenge is that it runs contrary to both common sense and conventional practice. Both state and federal regulations, for example, mandate that for a cabernet to be called a cabernet, it has to consist of 75 percent cabernet grapes; the same goes for chardonnay and virtually every other appellation.

And it isn’t just Napa that is being protected. We chatted with Jamie Douglas, executive director of the Sonoma County Wineries Association, and she told us while these regulations haven’t always been strictly enforced, the same rules exist to make sure that wines from Sonoma “have been produced bottled and grown there.”

We applauded when Bronco started working with Trader Joe’s to bring affordable, drinkable wines to the masses, believing that this would help expand people’s appreciation for the beverage that Ernest Hemingway once called “one of the most civilized things in the world” that offers “a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation than, possibly, any other purely sensory thing.”

But these challenges to perfectly sensible and common sense rules are inappropriate and verge on deliberate misdirection of consumers. We offer our own challenge to the folks at Bronco – stop these efforts now, and engage in labeling and marketing practices that build consumers’ trust rather than misleading them.