For months, a beloved kosher wine simply vanished from store shelves. Confused customers kept asking for it. Retailers had no answers. What looked like a supply chain problem turned out to be something far stranger: an escalating legal battle with France’s wine enforcers over a name that allegedly sounded too similar to a famous French wine.

Royal Wine Corporation, known as Herzog, the world’s largest distributor of kosher wines, found itself in an unprecedented two-year legal battle. After naming their semi-dry French wine “Chateneuf,” the French authorities deemed it too close to “Châteauneuf-du-Pape,” one of France’s most protected wine designations.

Herzog’s wine was a French wine but had nothing to do with Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and the name bore no connection to the town named for Papal pageantry and having the papal hat as its iconic symbol, far from a fitting name for a kosher wine. But to France’s Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualité (INAO), the government agency that acts as global wine police, the partial similarity alone was deemed a violation.

Herzog tried to cooperate, changing the name to “Chateleufe” modifying two letters to create distance. A change that went mostly unnoticed by consumers.

However, French authorities found it insufficient and escalated the matter. Herzog was forced to pull the wine entirely while legal proceedings dragged on.

Wine expert and retailer Moishe Mayer watched it unfold and spoke fondly of the wine: “It hit a rare sweet spot: balanced flavor, broad appeal, and a very attractive price.” The disappearance confused loyal buyers who searched for a bottle that had been erased from existence.

France treats wine appellations like intellectual property, legally protected geographic designations worth billions. The INAO has sued over baking powder, gone after Swiss towns, and targeted perfume companies. When it comes to safeguarding French wine names, no target is too small. But two forced rebrands? Industry insiders say that’s virtually unheard of.

After two years, two rebrands, and a prolonged absence from the shelves due to a legal battle that likely far exceeded the wine’s profit margin, the wine is finally back on shelves under its new name: Les Riganes Semi, part of Herzog’s Les Riganes collection.

The wine inside is identical, only the name has been scrubbed clean of any resemblance to the protected French appellation.

Following the debacle, Herzog remains optimistic, “Chateuneuf was widely beloved for its taste. Its popularity exceeds the ‘name’ on the label. We’re sure that its loyal following will now be enjoying Les Riganes Semi Dry White,” says Jay Buchsbaum, director of education for Royal Wine.