Wine Australia has cancelled the export licence held by Jindalee Road Wines Pty Ltd, an entity operating out of the New South Wales Murray Darling.
This is one of only eight licences to be suspended or cancelled by Wine Australia in the last 10 years.
Wine Australia’s Label Integrity Program investigation found that Jindalee Road Wines had failed to meet its record-keeping obligations established by the Wine Australia Act 2013.
The news comes roughly two months after Jindalee Road Wines and its former manager were fined nearly $500,000 for illegally taking water from a Western Murray Irrigation pipeline.
Wine Australia noted that whilst there are no health or safety concerns for consumers of the wine, wine label claims in relation to vintage, variety and region strongly influence people’s purchasing decisions.
Wine Australia regulates the export of wine, conducting audits of wine producers and ensuring the truthfulness, and reputation for truthfulness, of claims made on Australian wine labels in both the domestic and export markets. Wine cannot be exported from Australia without an export licence issued by Wine Australia. There are currently more than 2000 active licence holders.
“The licence cancellation reflects Wine Australia’s commitment to ensuring that consumers worldwide can be confident that label claims reflect what is in the bottle,” said Wine Australia.
Jindalee Road Wines may make an application to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for review of the decision to cancel its export licence in accordance with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975.
Wine Australia is not able to comment further as this matter is subject to an ongoing investigation.
More information on the Label Integrity Program can be found at www.wineaustralia.com/labelling.
Suspected breaches of Australian wine regulation can be reported openly or anonymously via Wine Australia’s Wine Watch portal www.wineaustralia.com/wine-watch.
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