Feature Article

Trademarking a vineyard to protect its name and reputation.

Lee Hudson protects the name and highly regarded reputation of his Carneros vineyard by trademarking it.

Trademarked Vineyards
A hedge against the devaluation
of “Vineyard Designates”

by Alan Goldfarb
May 17, 2007

What constitutes a “reserve” wine? Doesn’t it have to be of a certain quality? What the heck does “old vine” mean? Do the vines have to be 30 years old, 50 years old, 100?

Amazingly, there are no regulations which delineate a $3.99 “reserve” from a $100 wine. Nor are there any rules specifying how old a vine has to be before it can be declared “old vine.”

A consumer may be led into having confidence that a wine marked “reserve” or “old vine” is better than a wine that does not have any of those words on its label. The terms, in many instances, have been de-valued.

Are “vineyard designated” wines destined to meet a similar fate? Can anyone put a vineyard name on a label and call it special? What about the quality of the grapes themselves? Do they have to be the best?

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