INCREDIBLE BUT TRUE: TOCAI IS NOW WITHOUT A NAME. BUT THE LEGAL BATTLE OVER THE NAME OF ONE OF ITALY’S TOP WINES CONTINUES

From the typical white wine of Friuli, practically the essence itself of these lands, to a wine without a name: this is the “intolerable” story of Tocai Friulano that now finds itself in limbo between regional laws, ministerial decrees and European Court rulings from Luxembourg.
At the beginning of January, Tocai Friulano wines could no longer be labeled Tocai because of an Italian-Hungarian agreement made at an EU level in 1993 that gave the rights of the name Tocai to Hungary. Then the shortened name Friulano, which was coined by the Friuli Venezia Giulia region as an alternative, was then also subsequently blocked twice by the Italian courts in Lazio.

So, what is to be done? According to Federdoc (the umbrella association of 11 DOC and DOCG consortiums from the Friuli Venezia Giulia region), the current situation is intolerable. “Today, the Chamber of Commerce must register the typical white wine from Friuli for 2008” – noted Stefano Trinco, regional president of Federdoc – “and they can’t do it and, above all, they don’t know what to call it. It would be a ridiculous situation if it wasn’t so grave”.

In an attempt to find a solution, the region has organized a meeting with technicians and legal representatives of the Agricultural Ministry, as well as the Friuli wine producers themselves.
It will be necessary to decide which strategy to adopt: on the one hand, there are still those who want to reclaim the original name Tocai, – among whom Luigi Soini, director of the winery of Cormons (Gorizia) – who consider the EU backed agreement with Hungary to have now been superseded by the TRIPS agreement that would allow the use of the denomination Tocai, even abroad; while, on the other hand, there are producers who had already accepted the second name of Friulano. But, for now, the debate remains completely unresolved.