Is doesn’t happen often that the French have to cave in, but this time they had no choice:

The French wine-growing area of Alsace officially surrendered to Hungary the label “Tokay” which has been used for several hundred years to designate a local variety of white wine.
Hungary – where the Tokay wine region is a UNESCO-designated world heritage site – has been pressing for decades for the sole right to use the name for its range of dry to ultra-sweet white wines, and finally won the case when the country joined the European Union in 2004.

As long ago as 1926 France agreed to phase out the trade-name in return for a Hungarian commitment to stop making “cognac” — but the deal met insuperable resistance in Alsace where reportedly since the 16th century “Tokay d’Alsace” has referred to wine made from the “pinot gris” grape.

Some times you lose, some times you win. A few years ago, the French successfully forced a small town in Switzerland to change the name of its sparkling white wine, despite the fact that the town’s name had been Champagne for centuries…

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[tags]France,Alsace,Tokay,wine[/tags]