Long Island Reaffirms Support For Wine Truth-in-labeling With 14 Other Regions

New Poll Results and Open Letter From Notable Chefs Are Latest Steps in

Global Effort to Protect Wine Place Names



NEW YORK - Today Long Island and 14 other premier international wine regions came together along with renowned chefs from around the globe to call on policymakers to heed growing consumer demand for wine truth-in-labeling.



Results from a recent poll of U.S. consumers, conducted by Public Opinion Strategies, released today found that Americans, in particular, have very strong feelings about the role of location in making wine-purchasing decisions. Key findings from the poll of 1,000 U.S. wine drinkers include:



� 79 percent consider the region where a wine comes from an important factor when buying a bottle of wine;

� 75 percent report they would be less likely to buy a wine if they learned that it claimed to be from a place like Champagne, Napa Valley or Oregon, but in actuality was not;

� 84 percent think that the region a wine comes from is extremely important in determining its quality;

� 96 percent say that consumers deserve to know that the location where wine grapes are grown is accurately stated on wine labels; and

� 98 percent support establishing worldwide standards for all winemakers that would require that they accurately state the location where wine grapes are grown on wine labels.



"In over 20 years of polling, rarely have we seen such strong feelings on an issue like this," said Rob Autry, partner of Public Opinion Strategies and the lead pollster on this project. "Consumer sentiment this strong is a clear signal that Americans care a great deal about the location a wine comes from and clearly want ready access to that information when looking at a bottle."



Perhaps most troubling was the fact that despite broad interest in wine location from all sectors of the U.S. wine-consuming populace, when presented with two labels to compare side by side, most consumers were unable to determine the correct origin of the wine. This underscores the challenges winemakers face with current labeling laws.



The poll was released by the signatories to the Joint Declaration to Protect Wine Place & Origin, a coalition first formed in 2005 when the initial global declaration was signed. The organization has since doubled in size, welcoming Long Island and the other new member, Rioja, at this year's meeting in New York.



"The signatories of the Joint Declaration to Protect Wine Place & Origin have worked to produce world-class wine regions and preserve the integrity of our unique vines and lands," said Ron Goerler, Jr., president of the Long Island Wine Council. "United with Napa Valley, Sonoma County, Jerez and the many other wine regions across the globe, we are committed to educating consumers about the importance of location."



In addition to the growing number of wine regions joining the campaign to protect place names, some of the world's preeminent names in food and wine have joined hands with the coalition as well. An open letter was released today signed by chefs and sommeliers lending their support for truth in wine labeling. Signatories include Thomas Keller from Per Se and the French Laundry; Ferran Adri� from El Bulli; Daniel Boulud from Daniel; Alexandre Ferrand from Alain Ducasse; Wolfgang Puck from Wolfgang Puck Restaurants; Antoine Hernandez from Jo�l Robuchon; Michel Richard from Citronelle; Jos� Andr�s from Jaleo and minibar; Pontus Elofsson from Noma; Charlie Palmer from Charlie Palmer Restaurants and many others from around the globe.



"We support the Joint Declaration to Protect Wine Place & Origin because place names are cen