For nearly 20 years the Wine Origins Alliance (WOA) has been working to protect the integrity of wine region names around the world, working with California groups such as Sonoma County Vintners, Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance, and Napa Valley Vintners (NVV). As trade markets have become somewhat turbulent for wine in recent years, WOA has broadened its scope of purpose.
“The original reason for the establishment for Wine Origins Alliance was to fight for wine growing place names, the integrity of wine growing place names all over,” said NVV Senior Director of Industry Relations, Rex Stults. “But we’re adding another layer to our work and that’s advocating that tariffs for wine globally just be reduced down to zero.”
WAO represents 25 winery and grape-growing organizations in ten countries spanning North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Stults noted that globally, it seems that wine is one of the most impacted when trade relationships break down. “Wine is a product that in the olden days was used to toast trade agreements,” said Stults. “Now it just seems to be among the first products that are utilized and retaliated against in these trade wars and it’s not a good thing for the wine industry here or anywhere else.”
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