Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/172581
PACKAGING BOTTLES &LABELS Protecting Your Reputation Wines & Vines and Napa Valley Vintners co-host Wine Anti-Counterfeiting Seminar By Kate Lavin W hen it comes to tracking down fake bottles of alcoholic beverages, David Gooder says the challenge is like pulling weeds in a garden. Turn your attention to one corner, the chairman of the International Federation of Spirits Producers (IFSP) contends, and more interlopers will spring up behind you. Gooder was one of several speakers featured at the first Wine Anti-Counterfeiting Seminar (WACS) that Wines & Vines and the Napa Valley Vintners hosted at the Silverado Resort & Spa in Napa, Calif., in August. And while he told the audience of 108 attendees that the job of tracing fakes is never-ending, that doesn't mean companies should ever stop working to protect their brands. According to Gooder, who also serves as managing director and chief trademark counsel for Jack Daniels Properties/BrownForman Corp., the spirits industry has been fighting counterfeiting for about 15 years. Many kinds of fraud take place in the beverage industry, he says, from on-premise substitution (a customer orders—and pays for—a glass of one brand and is presented with another, cheaper version), to refilling (a genuine bottle is refilled with another product and then resealed) to all-out fakes. "Refilling is far and away the biggest issue," adds Gooder, who theorizes that copycats opt into counterfeiting alcoholic drinks because it's profitable and not complicated. But for a winery with a brand to protect, every counterfeit bottle represents potential erosion of confidence in that label. "We've seen entire brands literally tank in a country," Gooder says. "The Rothschild example is a good one: (It's said that)more Lafite sells in China than is produced in France." Wines made in China but emblazoned "Valley Napa" prompted the Napa Valley Vintners to take legal action that would help protect the reputation of California's Napa Valley. example of wines selling in China emblaUntil recently wine counterfeiters in China zoned "Panfaids" with the same red script and elsewhere targeted first-growth Borused by Australian winery Penfolds. Meandeaux with an almost sinwhile, the front label on a gular focus, but as the bottle found in a Beijing international marketplace supermarket proclaims has opened up, so has the "Valley Napa," while the business of wine fraud. back label explains the Scott Gerien, who wine inside is produced in heads the Intellectual northwest China. • 108 participants Property Department at COFCO, the largest stateattended the inaugural Napa-based law firm owned food company in Wine Anti-Counterfeiting Dickenson Peatman & China, registered the desigSeminar in Napa, Calif. Fogarty, points to the nation "Nava Valley" for The French paradox highlights • One expert from the spirits industry, which is years ahead in terms of protecting brands, claims the refilling of bottles is the biggest threat. • The first person to register a brand in China is entitled to protection, whether it is their brand or not. Wines & Vines editor Jim Gordon (from right) introduces speakers during the inaugural Wine Anti-Counterfeiting Seminar including Marietta Bartoletti, J. Scott Gerien and David Gooder. 44 W in e s & V i ne s O C TOb e r 20 13