Looks like wine, tastes like wine, EU says its a 'Fruit-Derived Alcoholic Beverage from produce sourced Outside the EU'

One of the UK's leading wine producers has fallen foul of bonkers EU rules after it was told its Malbec must not be called wine but 'a fruit-derived alcoholic beverage' because it was made using imported grapes from Argentina.

Bottles of the Chapel Down Malbec, which retail for around £15 each must now be withdrawn from sale under EU rules which declare that the wine may not declare itself a wine or a Malbec if produced in a region different from that in which the grapes were grown – and it's even forbidden to be sold.

The Malbec was produced in collaboration with an Argentinian vineyard and is not bottled as Malbec, but instead is called 'An English Salute'.

The winemakers from Tenterden in Kent are now stuck with 1,300 bottles of wine, which was launched in April on World Malbec Day and are resorting to giving it away as taster sample alongside purchases of their award-winning sparkling wines.

In protest at the barmy ruling, the EFD Group in the European Parliament, of which UKIP is the majority party, is holding a Non-Wine Tasting Event in Brussels on Europe Day, May 9, with the serious aim of drawing attention to damaging, nonsensical EU legislation.

There are bound to be plenty of takers, as according to wine experts, the grapes were fermented slightly cooler than is traditional in Argentina before the wine was matured in new American oak for nine month resulting in a “big red” wine (abv 14%) with a blackcurrant, blueberry and raspberry nose and a long finish of berry fruit and garrigue herbs.


To see what UKIP Leader Nigel Farage had to say abou the farce, click here.