For The Love Of Port

Eric Menchen wrote:

Bert VD wrote:well there's loads of brewery's (especially in the US) that make beers they're allowed to name "Belgian style" but not "Belgian". It has not much of a meaning as there are many different styles of Belgian beer...
Here's a pretty decent explanation about it, by an American brewery... http://dageraadbrewing.com/story/what-i ... tyle-beer/
so why not "Port style wine"?

But you can't label your Belgian-style beer "Trappist" unless you are one of the actual Trappist breweries. It too is a protected name.

that is also because Trappist isn't a strictly Belgian thing. there are several Trappist beers not from Belgium. it is however a similar example as Trappist beers come in many different flavours. so calling a beer "Trappist style" would not make much sense, just like "Belgian style" doesn't make any sense but still it is used as a marketing name and even a category in competitions.

and Bordeaux, Champagne, Cava, Prosecco... all have different flavours. There is white Champagne, rose Champagne, red Champagne... it's just the name of the sparkling wine from a certain area. so again, as you all say fortified wine would make much more sense (but isn't legal in the US). and then there's fortified wines that are completely different from Port, some of them also connected to regions. So Douro Style or Port Style would in my opinion be something that is defining enough to be clear it's not from there and just a marketing name. but still; i think we can agree that it would be much better to try and make your own name (maybe connected to your region) than making knockoff products with a misleading name.

Bert VD wrote:that is also because Trappist isn't a strictly Belgian thing. there are several Trappist beers not from Belgium.

One in the Netherlands and one in the United States as I recall? A friend of mine was the architect for the Spencer Brewery, the one in the US. Wikipedia informs

six in Belgium, two in the Netherlands and one each in Austria, Italy and United States

My point was that it is a protected name. There are a variety of protected names out there to prevent people from being mislead.