Wine Australia has cancelled the export licence held by Mayfield Family Wines Pty Ltd.
Wine Australia’s investigations found that Mayfield Family Wines did not keep proper records and sold wine to another party, incorrectly claiming it to be from the Barossa Valley region. That wine was subsequently exported to Europe by another party.
Wine Australia noted in a statement: “The licence cancellation reflects Wine Australia’s commitment to ensuring that consumers worldwide can be confident that wine label claims in relation to vintage, variety and region are correct.
“There are no concerns about health or safety, but regional claims strongly influence purchasing decisions and it is important that consumers can be confident that label claims reflect what’s in the bottle.”
Wine Australia is not able to comment further as this matter is subject to an ongoing investigation.
Mayfield Family Wines may make an application to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for review of this decision in accordance with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1995. The prescribed time for making an application under the Act is 28 days.
Fast facts
• Wine Australia protects the reputation of Australian wine by regulating the export of wine, conducting audits of wine producers and ensuring the truthfulness of claims made on Australian wine labels in both the domestic and export markets.
• Wine cannot be exported from Australia without an export licence issued by Wine Australia, which has the power to suspend or cancel licences when necessary.
• There is a strong culture of compliance in the Australian grape and wine sector. Wine Australia has only suspended or cancelled four licences in the past three years. To put that in context, there are more than 3000 active licence holders.
• Australian wine regulations specify that more than 85% of grapes must come from a particular region (geographical indication) for a wine to be entitled to carry that single regional descriptor. If there are blends of regions, this must be indicated on the label with the dominant region named first and other regions in descending order.
• More information on labelling rules can be found here.
