Wine Australia has revealed that it has cancelled the export licence held by Mayfield Family Wines Pty Ltd, following an investigation into the company.
The Wine Australia investigation found that Mayfield Family Wines did not keep proper records and sold wine to another party, incorrectly claiming it to be from the Barossa Valley region. That wine was subsequently exported to Europe by another party.
In statement about the cancellation, Wine Australia said: “The licence cancellation reflects Wine Australia’s commitment to ensuring that consumers worldwide can be confident that wine label claims in relation to vintage, variety and region are correct.
“There are no concerns about health or safety, but regional claims strongly influence purchasing decisions and it is important that consumers can be confident that label claims reflect what’s in the bottle.”
Mayfield Family Wines has 28 days to make an application to to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for review of this decision in accordance with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1995.
Wine cannot be exported from Australia without an export licence issued by Wine Australia, which has the power to suspend or cancel licences when necessary.
With a strong culture of compliance in the Australian grape and wine sector, this is a rare move by the authority. Wine Australia has only suspended or cancelled four licences in the past three years. To put that in context, there are more than 3000 active licence holders.