Wine and New gTLDs — Do They Go Well Together?

This week I saw an article in Decanter via Nick Stephens’ Bordeaux Undiscovered site.  The story combined two things I write about here – wine and new generic top level domains, or gTLDs.

I last reported on gTLDs back in March — their rollout has been repeatedly delayed. Partly this is due to the kind of opposition described in the Decanter piece. It’s not totally clear to me what exactly the EU officials are protesting, beyond groups not specifically tied to geographic areas or the wine industry owning new wine related gTLDs like .wine and .vin.

That may be a legitimate concern, but they seem very late to the party. The gTLD process has been going on for many years, and it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone in the wine business. There  are provisions to arbitrate trademark disputes and prevent the kind of cyber-squatting referenced in Nick’s post. And regarding specific geographic areas like Chianti and Bordeaux, a search of the ICANN gTLD site shows no organization has made an application for those extensions.

There is background to this story not mentioned by Decanter. The EU would prefer Internet addressing issues to be administered by the United Nations, not by an independent body created by the United States such as ICANN. So whether or not you think gTLDs are necessary or a good idea, that is part of the hostility being expressed here.

A good way to know the status of wine and new gTLDs is to visit the DotVinum.org site maintained by Jean Guillon. I’ve gotten to know Jean through LinkedIn, and he’s been involved for years trying to reconcile wine and new gTLDs. His site lists three applicants for a new .wine gTLD, and one applicant for .vin. One of the .wine applicants is a well known, existing provider of registry services. The other two are companies formed specifically to take advantage of the gTLD rollout.

Only time will tell who will run new wine related gTLDs, and how much effect they will have on the wine industry. If people in the industry are not up to date on what is going on, they should educate themselves quickly.