The Hungarian system of geographical indications and the preparation of product specifications

Following the 2008-2009 reform of the European Union’s common market organisation in wine all protected designations of origin and geographical indications were imposed to prepare a product specification that described the conditions of their use. In this paper, we describe this process and the Hungarian system of geographical indications. 

As set by EU regulation No. 1308/2013, geographical indications represent a specific wine quality that is related to the place of origin to a certain extent. The relationship is strong in case of protected designations of origin (PDO) and weak in case of protected geographical indications (PGI). The factors laying behind this relationship are regulated in the product specifications that had to be submitted to the European Commission by 31 December 2011 (for the already existing ones). Before that date the Hungarian system of geographical indications included 33 PDOs and 13 PGIs. However some of these geographical indications lost protection as their product specifications were not submitted (by intention). Following the recognition of a new PDO in 2013, now there are 31 PDOs and 5 PGIs in Hungary. The location of the Hungarian wine PDOs is presented on map 1. 

It is common to differentiate two types of systems of geographical indications: German and Latin ones. In German systems, geographical indications represent a quite diverse character and the wines are usually segmented upon the ripeness of grapes. The latter is somewhat obvious as the wine districts concerned are the northernmost grape growing areas. 

Meanwhile the Latin systems, originate from France and thus incorporating the concept of appellation d’origine contrôllée, put emphasis on the typicality of the given area. Therefore this approach concentrates on a much more limited scope of products that are strongly related to their place of origin.