Wine meets the EU
STANTHORPE: Winemaker Leeanne Puglisi-Gangemi has talked up the Granite Belt to the most powerful figure in the European Union agriculture sector and made sure the fight to de-amalgamate the council is heard all the way in Brussels.
The Ballandean Estate Wines client relations manager addressed EU Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Phil Hogan at Bond University on February 2. Both were at the Gold Coast university to take part in a colloquium on geographical indications, or GIs. The Granite Belt was gazetted as a GI in 2002.
“The commissioner and I don’t know each other but my position almost mirrors his. We have a lot of similar ideas about the importance of GIs,” Mr Puglisi-Gangemi said.
“The winemakers of the Granite Belt are fiercely proud of the wines we are producing and the awards we are winning.”
The winemaker outlined the success of the Strange Bird wine trail but said the Southern Downs Regional Council represented a threat to the region as it did not allow the use of the term Granite Belt in tourism campaigns.