The federal government is developing an Australian Wine Label Intellectual Property Directory which will greater protect wine exported from Australia.

Many Australian winemakers are impacted by copycat wine sold overseas, with others using the name and similar looking bottles to masquerade as an Australian wine.

Great Western's Best's Wines cellar door supervisor Hamish Thomson said copycat wines are "concerning".

"We currently export to Canada, the United States and throughout Asia. There are some places where label integrity just isn't looked after," he said.

"We certainly need to do all we can to protect label integrity across the board. I'm not too sure how the government will enforce it overseas but this is a good step to take.

"We have had some problems with trademark overseas. We work hard and put a lot of effort into our products so to have that recognised and cared about is good to see."

The new directory is part of the $50 million Export and Regional Wine Support Package.

Federal agriculture minister David Littleproud said the directory will cover specific aspects of labels.

"This directory will help protect Australian wine by identifying potential copycat labels," he said.

"The publicly accessible directory will require all Australian wine exporters to submit images of their labels prior to gaining export certification.

"It will be searchable by image elements, brand name and publication date and will display the trademarked image of labels, the exporter ABN, brand name and date the label was published to the directory."

Mr Littleproud said copycat sellers will be able to be held more accountable with the new system.

"Copycats can be stripped of their export licence and those being copied could also take private legal action," he said.

"There are significant punishments for those who breach the law and the directory will help ensure copycats are held accountable.

"This rips off our producers and it also ruins the reputation of our wine when customers expect a quality Australian wine and receive a cheap knock-off."​

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