Ale Street News Online

Since 1985, Lurgashall Winery has created award-winning fruit wines, cordials and meads. Through the ownership and guidance of Jerry Schooler, this quaint winery, located in West Sussex, England, distributes its products in Europe, the US and throughout the world.

They are also available in some of Britain’s royal palaces. After 23 years of success, Lurgashall received surprising news from the European Union: "You’re using the wrong bottles! Stop it!"

From the beginning, Lurgashall sold its fruit wines and meads in 750-ml bottles and liqueurs in 375-ml bottles. "We’ve been using these bottles since we first started," Schooler explains. "A trading standards officer would visit us every year to see if there were any problems and there never were any. This year, he points out the new regulations and tells me the bottles all must be changed."

According to European Union law, wine must be sold in 700-ml bottles. The change would result in purchasing different size bottles and corks as well as designing new labels. Add this to the cost of refitting the bottle filler and Schooler is faced with nearly $200,000 in expenses. Failure to comply could result in fines as high as $60,000. Under-filling the bottles currently used is illegal by UK laws.

Lurgashall’s problems go even further with its liqueurs. The winery makes 10 different types, including ginger, walnut and raspberry. Each are 17 percent alcohol by volume. While English law states that liqueurs may be as strong as 21 percent alcohol by volume, the EU has decreed that spirits are any alcoholic beverages more than 15 percent alcohol by volume. As a result, Lurgashall must bottle its liqueurs in 350-ml bottles.

To further complicate matters, no one is even sure if Lurgashall should follow the same regulations as wineries. The legal definition of a wine is a fermented beverage made from grapes. Lurgashall does not use grapes in any of its products; its fruit wines (plum, elderberry, rhubarb, etc.) are "made wines," fermented beverages made from fruit other than grapes. Mead suffers similar legal uncertainty. While believed to be the world’s first alcoholic beverage, it does not fit into any of the current classifications.

"I haven’t changed the way I did business since I first opened," Schooler points out. "It’s ridiculous that the people running the EU have to spend their time worrying about me." As of this writing, it looks as though Lurgashall will have to comply with the EU, though it might be for only a short time. A department chairman from the EU has spoken with Schooler and assured him that the matter is being looked into and will be resolved by next year.

Lurgashall Meads are distributed in the US by B. United International Inc.