Does EU wine-law "reform" threaten terroir?

[Robin Garr]

<i>Note in particular the paragraph in bold below. Does anyone have more detailed information on this EU agreement and what it means in practice to the established AOC regulations in France, DOC in Italy, QmP in Germany and so on? Will "simplification" translate to "homogenization" and will wines of, er, <i>terroir</i> go away? Or is this too alarmist an interpretation?</i>

EU clinches deal on wine sector reform UPDATE
12.19.07, 9:58 AM ET
(Updates with quotes, details)

BRUSSELS (Thomson Financial) - EU farm ministers agreed a compromise allowing the bloc to go ahead with controversial plans to shake up Europe's struggling wine sector, the European Commission said.

The reform, due to enter into force in August 2008, is to help the wine industry win back market share from foreign competitors such as Australia and Argentina, while also sopping up chronic overproduction.

But the package has been significantly watered down since it was first proposed by the European Commission in July, after some of Europe's biggest wine-making nations found it too hard to swallow.

Despite the dilution of her plans, EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel voiced satisfaction that the ministers, meeting in Brussels, had hammered out a 'well-balanced' compromise.

'Instead of spending much of our budget getting rid of unwanted surpluses, we can now concentrate on taking on our competitors and winning back market share,' she said.

'We didn't get everything we wanted, but we have ended up with a well-balanced agreement,' Fischer Boel added. 'I hope the member states will make good use of the new tools available.'

The package includes plans to encourage farmers to uproot 175,000 hectares of the least competitive vines through an incentive programme, down sharply from the European Commission original proposal of 400,000 hectares.

<B>The plans will also phase out currently complicated planting rights that dictate where farmers can plant what type of vines, a move which many small producers fear will run them out of business.</b>

The shake-up also calls for costly subsidies for distilling surplus wine to be gradually diverted to marketing blitzes in countries outside the European Union in hope of regaining lost market share.

As Germany had demanded, the compromise will allow wine-makers to continue to add sugar, a practice common in northern countries where there is not always enough sun to make natural sugars for potent wines.

However, there will be limits on how much sugar can be added, although they can be lifted if crops suffer a particularly serious lack of sunlight.

The EU's executive arm argues that root-and-branch reform is necessary to make Europe's wine industry more competitive against rival products from Australia, the Americas and South Africa.

In Europe, wine heavyweights such as France, Italy and Spain are increasingly struggling to cope with falling consumption at home and dwindling market share in traditionally large markets like Britain and Germany in the face of growing New World imports.

Full story in Forbes.com]

Here is the link to the official press release. At first sight I don't see anything here or in the Forbes report threatening terroir. I guess that there is still a lot of latitude for national interpretation.

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAct ... anguage=en

The plans will also phase out currently complicated planting rights that dictate where farmers can plant what type of vines, a move which many small producers fear will run them out of business.

Robin, I'm concerned that the journalist who wrote this might have got his wires crossed. This is a dangerous thing to discuss because we are talking about highly intricate EU law here, but here is my take on it with no guarantees of getting the situation right.

Whereas planting rights are indeed complicated, they do not "dictate where farmers can plant what type of vines". I believe that the basic principal in France is that each year x hectares of new planting rights are allocated to to each viticultural region. Complications occur in whether they are AOC, VdP etc. But also planting rights can be transferred, bought & sold etc. To give an idea, Jura and Savoie are usually allocated less than 20 hectares each per year, a proportion of which must go to 'young vignerons' (an official status giving various benefits including cheaper loans, tax deferment etc). Any quality producer who is doing well, say on export markets, and wants to expand, simply can't in any significant way. It's very restrictive particularly when they are able to see the vast tracts planted by producers out of Europe.

I don't know how it works in other EU member states.

Personally, I think this move might actually help preserve terroir in allowing quality producers more flexibility in the future.

[Robin Garr]

I'm concerned that the journalist who wrote this might have got his wires crossed.

Thanks, Wink (and Tim, too!)

As stated in the Forbes article, it looked scary ... I'm glad to know (but not too surprised) that there's likely more to the story. Still, this is clearly a topic that bears watching.

Here is an article that i found here (in german)

Date: 4th july 2007

Besonders in Deutschland profitieren die Winzer seit einigen Jahren vom Boom ihrer Qualitätsprodukte, allen voran dem Riesling. Die EU argumentiert dagegen, dass ohne eine Reform bis spätestens 2011 massive Weinüberschüsse von jährlich etwa 15 Prozent entstehen würden. Deshalb sollen in den kommenden fünf Jahren EU-weit 200 000 Hektar Rebflächen gerodet werden. Dafür gibt es Prämien von 7174 Euro pro Hektar im ersten Jahr, die schrittweise auf 2938 Euro pro Hektar im fünften Jahr sinken sollen. Es gebe Winzer, die warteten regelrecht auf diese Prämien, um aussteigen zu können, argumentierte Lars Hoelgaard von der EU-Generaldirektion Landwirtschaft am Mittwoch in Ingelheim. Besondere Landschaften wie Steillagen sollten aber von der Regelung ausgenommen werden können. Nach der Rodungsphase will die EU dann ab 2014 alle Beschränkungen für Neuanpflanzungen fallen lassen, um erfolgreichen Winzern die Möglichkeit zur Expansion zu geben. Deutsche Winzer befürchten dadurch eine Zunahme industrieller Großproduktionen.

Especially in germany vintners benefit from the boom of their quality products, especially Riesling. The EU argues that without a reform unti 2011 there will be a, excess of wine of about 15%. Therefore in the next 5 years 200 000 hectars in the EU should be stubbed. In the first year there will be a bonus of 7174 € per hectar, step by step lowered to 2938 € per hectar i the fifth year. There are some vinegrowers just waiting for this bonus argued Lars Hoelgaard from the EU directorate of the ministry of agriculture on wednesday in Ingelheim. Specific territory like mountainsides/ hillsides (german: Steilhang) should be possibly excepted from this reform. After plowing the fields the EU wants to abolish restrictions for new plantings in 2014 to give successful vinegrowers the chance for expansion. German vintners fear an increase of industrial large scale production.

Praktisch abgeschafft werden soll auch die Unterscheidung zwischen Tafelweinen und Qualitätsweinen: Beide auf dem Etikett Rebsorte und Jahrgang angeben dürfen. Das war bislang den Qualitätsweinen vorbehalten, die sich künftig nur noch durch «geschützte geografische Angaben und Ursprungsbezeichnungen» auszeichnen sollen.

The determination of Tafelwein and Qualitaetswein (the two stages below QmP) shall be practically disestablished: Both types shall be allowed to name grape variety and vintage (year). QmP alone reserved the right to name these 2 descriptions, in future it should be identified by "territory" alone.


---------

I think this "reform" is just one more large scale lobbyism forced try to lower the difference between their vinegar (dont want to name their stuff wine) and quality production in the eyes of a naive consument.

If there "would be" 15% wine that is produced to much in 2011 (or whenever) one thing will be for sure: These 15% won`t be QmP Wine (Kabinett, Spaetlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese, Eiswein) - these 15% will be some - until now - unnamed Tafelwein (=mixed wine from different countries) and QbA (=same region, different grape varieties).

After this "reform" it will be (if it is not partly cancelled - who knows what these folks do) allowed to sell this stuff as Riesling or Chardonnay or Gewurztraminer etc. and give it a vintage (year). In fact this wine is given a higher optical value for the consument.

To name a territory on the bottles will still be just a right for QmP wine.

This "reform" is just for the large scale producing adulteraters of wine, it will be harder to determine between the wine qualities below QmP for wine thats good enough for wine cooler (called Schorlewein in Pfalz).