The wine industry presents a complex supply chain from the vine to the glass. This is accompanied by a complex legal framework covering land use, Geographical Indication, grape variety, water and other environmental factors, winemaking techniques, sales and distribution, marketing and trade marks, labelling issues, tourism, licensing and more. This dissertation posits an optimal legal framework for the supply chains of wine produced in Victoria Australia and Virginia USA. It compares the regimes in France and Italy and evaluates how they have shaped the wine regulatory framework of these New World jurisdictions. In particular, the dissertation examines taxation and intellectual property issues in both a theoretical and a practical context.
Chapter 1 is a Literature Review and conceptualisation of wine law. Chapter 2 sets out a conceptual regulatory framework of the wine industry, drawing on normative legal theory. Chapter 3 describes the legal regimes and regulatory frameworks for wine of Italy and France. Chapter 4 describes the legal regimes and regulatory frameworks for wine in Victoria and Virginia. Chapter 5 analyses taxation of the wine industry. Chapter 6 analyses intellectual property in the wine industry, especially Geographical Indications and Trade Marks, also the economics of a wine regulatory framework. Chapter 7 takes an overarching approach to an optimum wine law framework.