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London Cru forced to name its wines Thunderbirds-style as wines 1, 2 and 3

Published:  01 August, 2014

London Cru, the capital's first urban winery, may have succeeded in shipping grapes from Europe to make wine in the UK, but it has had more difficulty with the bureaucrats in what it can now call them.

London Cru's Thunderbird-style winesLondon Cru's wines are Go! Go! Go!London Cru has to name its wines Thunderbirds-style 1, 2 and 3

 

London Cru, the capital's first urban winery, may have succeeded in shipping grapes from Europe to make wine in the UK, but it has had more difficulty with the bureaucrats in what it can now call them.

In particular, it has been surprised to find out it cannot put the vintage or the variety of the wine on the label under UK Food Standards Agency rules.

As a result it will not be able to call its new wine range its 2013 Chardonnay, Syrah, Barbera or Cabernet Sauvignon. Instead, in something that sounds more like the start of an episode of Thunderbirds, its wines will be called SW6 White Wine 1 and Red Wines 1, 2 and 3. 

Gavin Monery, London Cru winemaker, takes up the story: "The EU regulations allow the transport of grapes between member states using varieties and the vintage. The end decision however is subject to the 'competent authority' in the member state. In the UK that's the FSA and they won't let people use variety and vintage unless the grapes are grown in the UK. It's a topsy turvy world when UK bureaucrats trump their EU brethren...European Community rules."

The winery said it was always aware it would not be able to state where the appellation the grapes it has used in the wine comes from and "was happy to work on that basis".

London Cru said in a statement: "We weren't expecting we wouldn't be able to put the vintage or the variety on the label. Even though the bodies in charge had never come across a winery like ours before, the paperwork we required from our growers is the same as we'd get in the UK for making English wine, so we hoped common sense would win out.

"Sadly, and perhaps inevitably, bureaucracy triumphed over common sense, and the powers that be informed us that because the rules didn't explicitly allow us to use the vintage and variety they effectively disallowed it irrespective of any evidence we can offer to document exactly what we've made."

It added: "So the wines are now no longer 2013 Chardonnay, Syrah, Barbera and Cabernet Sauvignon. Instead they will be called SW6 White Wine 1 and Red Wines 1, 2 and 3."

Either way London Cru promises the wines, which are currently available to pre-order on its website, will be in the bottle within the next two weeks.

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