Australia to lose last of Europe's wine names

The Australian wine industry will soon phase out the last of the traditional European names that are still in use for its wines but were agreed to be replaced under the Trade in Wine Agreement (TWA) made between the European Community and Australia in 1993.

The term Sherry will be replaced with 'apera' and Tokaji will become 'topaque'.

Apera, a play on 'aperitif', will be relaunched as a trendy, fun wine to drink when the sun goes down. Topaque, according to makers, sounds more refined than tokay.

New descriptors for 'fino' and 'flor' still need to be found and are due to be announced next month by the Winemakers' Federation of Australia (WFA) who are overseeing the changes.

In exchange, the EC will recognise winemaking techniques used in Australia but banned in Europe such as oak chips and staves.

Australian producers have been phasing out European names and expressions since 1993, in many cases, before the agreed dates.

Beujolais, Cava and Frascati were among the first to be removed and 'Champagne' has not been used for several years.

The WFA said the new names for Sherry and Tokaji had been identified during a market research project costing AUS$1m (£0.4m).