More wine regions from around the world signed onto the effort to protect wine place and origin as they signed a joint declaration in Washington, D.C., last week.

Representatives from Sonoma County, Paso Robles, Chianti Classico in Italy, Tokaj in Hungary, and Victoria and Western Australia signed the accord reinforcing the determination by leading wine regions to protect their names and reputations from wine producers who use misleading place designations on their labels.

The most blatant examples are Chablis and Burgundy, traditionally applied to any cheap white or red wine by California jug wine makers, though neither is a signatory to the proclamation. In July 2005, representatives from Napa Valley, Oregon, Washington, Walla Walla Valley, Champagne, Porto and Jerez signed the largely symbolic agreement.

The most aggrieved who did sign are Champagne, a term widely used in the U.S. for cheap sparkling wine, and Port and Sherry, used for fortified wine.

Napa Valley largely initiated the effort. According to Linda Reiff, executive director of the Napa Valley Vintners, the accord arose after representatives of other regions visited Napa four years ago. Napa was fighting misuse of its name by Bronco Wine Company for its Napa Ridge wine, which didn’t use Napa grapes.

Since then, Napa has won the case, and California passed a law restricting the label “Napa” to wines made of at least 75 percent grapes from that county.

Paso Robles, which has proposed 11 new sub-appellations, has requested a “conjunctive” law like that which applies to Napa Valley, where any sub-appellation wine must also mention the larger area.

In a related development, the European Union recently announced that Napa Valley has been named a Geographical Indication, the first wine region in North America to gain the protection and recognition of this designation.

Reinforcing the declaration, a binding accord was recently signed by the EU and the U.S. restricting future use of 16 wine place names to wines from those regions.

They include Champagne, Sherry, Port, Chablis and Burgundy, but brands using the terms can continue to do so in the U.S. with geographic qualification such as “California champagne.”

Many issues remain, however. The Hungarian region that makes Tokaj has persuaded Alsace and Friulano to stop calling their wines “Tocai” or “Tokay,” but Russians and Ukrainians still use the names.

One problem for the makers of Sherry- and Port-style fortified wines is that there’s no workable alternative, as there is in “sparkling wine” for “champagne.”

César Saldana of the Sherry consortium notes that Spanish sparkling wine producers faced that dilemma and came up with the term “cava,” now widely respected as a category of its own.

Reiff said the Napa Valley Vintners are working on an alternative for the few Napa producers of fortified wines. “We asked our friends in Porto for suggestions,” she said. George Sandeman of Sandeman Sherry and Port companies acknowledged the problem and even admitted that some other fortified wines are excellent — “but they’re not Port or Sherry.”

Two issues remain for Napa producers.

One is that Calistoga Cellars has sold its property to Nils Venge and moved to Ukiah, but continues to use the name. This is holding up the adoption of a American Viticultural Area designation for the last remaining major wine area of Napa Valley without its own recognized region.

Tom Sheldon of Joseph Phelps Vineyards noted that Napa vintners met with the Treasury Department and Trade and Tax Bureau during the trip to Washington, but “there’s no tipping of their hands so far.”

Reiff said she suspects the agencies would like the local groups to negotiate a deal privately. But she added, “One or two brand owners are threatening not only the proposed Calistoga AVA but the Napa Valley and whole U.S. AVA system.”

The other continuing problem is China, where at least one wine producer uses the equivalent of “Napa” on bottles. “We’re continuing to work together on Capitol Hill,” she added.

In a separate meeting, Rep. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) said he feels the Chinese government could deal with this with ease. “It’s a pretty authoritarian country. Our trade people should be able to apply pressure to get them to stop using ‘Napa.’”

Reiff added, “(Thompson) has been a tremendous help at the Treasury and TTB.”

Also as part of the effort, the Congressional Wine Caucus, which Thompson heads along with Republican Rep. George Radanovich, held a tasting featuring wines from the 13 regions that signed the declaration. The tasting attracted young hungry and thirsty staff members and members of Congress.

At the tasting, Ed Matovcik, who was Thompson’s chief of staff before becoming vice president of government and community relations for Foster’s Wine Estates in Napa Valley, said “I was blown away by the efforts by the wine regions. They got ahead of their governments on this issue. The world is truly flat in the wine community.”