BUDAPEST (AFP) — A centuries-old sweet wine once hailed by the king of France has fired a decades-old cross-border battle between Hungary and Slovakia as each claim the right to use a label for a wine produced in a region cut into two by the border.
Like many conflicts in the Carpathian Basin, the battle over Tokaji (Hungarian for 'of Tokaj') wine is a legacy of the peace agreements following World War I, cutting off chunks of the former Austro-Hungarian monarchy and establishing independent new states along new borders.
The region that produces the golden-coloured vintage was carved in two, with most falling into Hungarian territory and a much smaller part into what today is Slovakia.
Exactly how big is that Slovakian part, and what production methods are in use, are at the heart of the wine debate that heated up when a top European Union committee drafting the wine sector reform adopted at the end of April officially classified the entire Slovakian side of the cross-border region as a Tokaji wine-growing region.
Hailed in Bratislava as a small but significant victory in the decades-long battle, the move was dismissed on the other side as not legally binding. Budapest vowed to go to court if Slovakian winemakers start using the Tokaji label.
"If a bilateral agreement is not reached, we are going to turn to the European Court of Justice for the total withdrawal of Slovakia's right to use the Tokaji designation and all its derivatives," warned Andras Dekany, spokesman of the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The Hungarians are concerned that sub-quality wines could damage the reputation of their own prized Tokaji vintage.
Entitled since 1993 to the use of the Tokaji label, a protected designation of origin, Hungarian winemakers insist the production of the dessert wine requires a special soil, microclimate and production methods to keep up the quality.
According to the Hungarians, these apply to a certain chunk of the wine area stretching over to Slovakia but not all the territory the Slovakian side now claims based on a 1959 Slovakian law.
Uniform rules of production and the establishment of Slovakian quality control bodies is another demand of the Hungarian Tokaji winemakers.
"Most of the vineyards in the Slovakian region are in a run-down state and they sell their wine primarily to a domestic market," said Andras Gyorffy, CEO of Chateau Megyer, a winery owned by Bordeaux winemaker Jean-Louis Laborde in the Tokaji Wine Region.
"They are not yet a threat to the image of Hungarian Tokaji. But standards of production must be introduced and enforced for the long run," he said.
History has not helped efforts to reach an agreement -- the neighbors have an uneasy recent history partly stemming from Hungarian domination of the Slovaks in the pre-World War I Austro-Hungarian monarchy.
Ironically, the conflict cannot even be translated as a purely Hungarian-Slovakian issue as some of the newest wineries on the Slovakian side are constructed and operated by Hungarian entrepreneurs.
Take for example the Tokaji Mercatus winery of Zoltan Hegedus, who chose a Slovakian site with an exceptional view of the Bodrog river for his brand new vineyard due to geographical conditions and the attractive local tax system.
Nearby a company owned by ethnic Hungarians purchased 42 hectares of land to start a winery.
The international recognition in the 1970s for the Hungarian Tokaji brand was reinforced by its registry as an exclusive brand with the European Union in 1993.
A resolution looked in sight in 2004 when the two countries agreed that wine produced on 565 hectares (1,400 acres) of land in Slovakia would be able to use the Tokaji label, providing that common regulations were applied.
But the new Slovakian government under Prime Minister Robert Fico decided to overturn what it insisted had only been a "gentlemen's agreement" it saw as disadvantageous to Slovakia.
Fico argued that a much larger portion of its territory fell within the historical Tokaji wine region.
Hungary had similar appellation issues both with Italy, which had to give up its Tocai Friulano, and France, which was forced to stop marketing one of its white wines under the name Alsace Tokay Pinot Gris, by April 2007.
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