The wine world is getting too wild for Yellow Tail and its popular animal mascot.
Casella Wines, the maker of the best-selling Australian brand, is suing rival Bronco Wine for infringing on its namesake — the yellow-footed rock wallaby — and other elements of its label design.
The lawsuit claims that Bronco has applied for two labels for a new, low-cost wine called Down Under. One features a wallaby that Yellow Tail claims is strikingly similar to its label. Another proposed label features a kangaroo, which is related to the wallaby.
Casella also accused Bronco of ripping off the square brackets that Yellow Tail uses to enclose its name, which is all lower case. Bronco, meanwhile, uses brackets to enclose the Down Under brand, which is all upper case. Along with the animal imagery, consumers are bound to be confused, the suit said.
“In fact, consumers are likely to believe that [DOWN UNDER] is a rock bottom, cheap version of Casella’s [yellow tail] wine,” according to the complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan.
Casella said Bronco, best known for popularizing the $1.99-a-bottle Charles Shaw brand nicknamed “Two Buck Chuck,” is able to buy up bulk Australian wine at record low prices, thanks to a surplus that drove down the price of wine to 60 cents a liter at the end of the 2008 season.
Yellow Tail’s success marketing has spawned all sorts of critter-themed imitators over the years. Casella said more than 70 million bottles of Yellow Tail were sold in the US last year.