French fears of competition from a flood of U.S. wine bearing the word "chateau" on the label eased on Tuesday, after EU officials delayed a decision on a plan that has left Bordeaux winemakers seeing red.
The European Union's wine management committee had been expected to approve an application to allow U.S. wine exports to Europe to use the word "chateau," in what one EU official described as a "purely technical rubber-stamping exercise".
But after complaints from producers in French wine growing regions, the country's agriculture minister asked the committee to delay the vote to give France a chance to present alternative proposals. Europeans associate chateau with wines from a specific vineyard attached to a stately home, while in the U.S. the term can be used to describe wines made from grapes from multiple sources.
