An appeal by the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia region of Italy to the European Court has been turned down, with the judges ruling that Italian Tocai âdoes not qualify as a geographical indicationâ because âit has no special quality, reputation or characteristic that is attributable to its geographic originâ.The latest news is that nothing much has changed. The ECJ maintains that Hungary alone has the right to use the name Tokaji or any version thereof and the Italian wine makers who will now have to call their Friuliano are worried that they will lose sales.
Gianola Nonino, whose family has been making wine at Udine in Friuli for generations, called the decision âappallingâ.
âThey have stolen a part of our history,â she said, adding that the new name, Friulano, was "terribleâ, since it was simply an adjective describing anything that comes from Friuli.Marco Felluga, another leading Friuli wine producer, said that the loss of the Tocai brand was âincredible . . . Italy has lost its wine war with Hungary. Itâs like saying that from tomorrow Italians cannot call pizza pizza any more.â
Signor Pizzul said that the row was âparticularly absurd because the Italian and Hungarian versions of Tocai are quite differentâ. Italian Tocai is an aromatic dry white made entirely from the Tocai grape (known as Sauvignon Vert in France), whereas Hungarian Tokai or Tokaji is a sweet dessert wine made using Furmint and Haréslvelü grapes.
âIt would almost be comical if it were not so serious,â the association said. âChambers of commerce that have to register Friuli wine for 2008 cannot because they donât know what to call it.âIndeed, one could say that about almost anything to do with EU regulation that it would be comical if it were not so serious.
Surveys show that the EU has lost popularity in Hungary in 2007. That's because the EU is seen as an elitist theme, suggests sociologist Pál Tamás. "Gradually, the relationship between Hungary and the EU has changed. True, the EU is still seen as connected with Brussels, officials and regulations ? though in day to day talk the term EU is increasingly used to mean just that - all of the Union. ... At the same time, however, there is a widely accepted view that we are second-class EU citizens. In other words, EU acceptance was their decision, not ours. This notion can only be overcome through demonstrations of our own interests, perhaps through independent decisions on specific issues."Actually, as we wrote at the time, the support for EU membership was lukewarm at best in most East European countries, particularly Hungary. The turn-out for those referendums was very low, not even reaching 50 per cent in Hungary. The reason was clear: few people wanted to vote for the parties that opposed membership, which were either rather unpleasant, archaic, inward looking nationalists or unreconstructed communists but there was no great enthusiasm for the actual project either.
The tussle with Paris Hilton, meanwhile, is over a drink called Rich Prosecco and its advertising campaign featuring the heiress wearing nothing but a coating of gold paint, in imitation of the actress Shirley Eaton in the James Bond film Goldfinger.It seems to me (and I am not a prosecco drinker nor somebody who would buy a disgusting sounding canned drink because Ms Hilton has painted herself gold) that people who âwill forever associate the name of prosecco with something similar to an alcoholic fruit drinkâ are unlikely to buy the real stuff, anyway. It all adds to the gaiety of nations and the bank accounts of lawyers.
On the whole Italians do not object to seeing Ms Hilton in the nude. What has caused anger is that she has not only used the name âproseccoâ, which Italians regard as their copyright, but also â sacrilegiously â put the drink in a can and mixed it with fruit juice.
The defence offered by Ms Hiltonâs publicity machine is that Rich Prosecco is not being marketed in Italy. It was launched last year at a typically extravagant âmega-partyâ in the Austrian Alps. Ms Hilton, who emerged from a helicopter in a glittering dress, declared the drink to be âyummyâ.
Günther Aloys, the businessman who created Rich Prosecco, said that she was âpleasant and uncomplicated. Nobody embodies carefree lust for life as convincingly and glamorously as Paris Hilton.â
However, in Treviso, one of the centres of Italian prosecco production, winemakers are not amused. Fulvio Brunetta, head of the Treviso branch of Coldiretti, the farmersâ union, said that Ms Hiltonâs drink was an insult. He said Italian producers would meet this month to consider their response, âup to and including legal actionâ. Mr Brunetta said that he had nothing against Ms Hilton. âBut she is . . . creating a generation of consumers who will forever associate the name of prosecco with something similar to an alcoholic fruit drink.â