Drastic EU reforms will eliminate Italy's DOC and IGT denominations
September 5, 2008
By Kerin O'Keefe
New EU wine reforms will destroy centuries of winemaking tradition and cause market chaos, say industry professionals in Italy.
Changes planned by the European Common Market Organization (CMO) would replace current appellation systems with two standard European denominations.
In Italy, many fear that entire viticultural areas would be merged, and it is likely that the country's 316 DOCs, 38 DOCGs and 118 IGTs would be downsized to 182 designations divided between the newly established DOP and IGP denominations.
From August 2009, DOP and IGP will be only the appellations allowed in Europe under the new rules.
Applying the new regulations to the letter, individual denominations and regulations for Barolo, Dolcetto and Barbera, now within the Barolo growing zone, would all become Barolo DOP.
'Obviously, this makes no sense, and would destroy decades of work spent protecting and guaranteeing our individual wines,' said Claudio Salaris, Director of the Barolo consorzio.
Subzones would also be eliminated from labels according to the new proposals, and the flexible IGTs would be replaced with the more rigid IGPs.
'I don't think a literal interpretation is possible, said Salaris. 'But we have to work with the EU lawmakers to protect our patrimony and keep our individual winemaking zones.'
Salaris admitted there would be benefits, with a unified EU denomination system providing a 'great guarantee' against fraudulent practices.
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Something quite sure : it will never be as described here. Stupidity at this level deserves a gold medal, no doubt !
François Mauss, Abweiler, Luxembourg
Sorry, but that's simply plain BS. Go to http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/capreform/wine/index_en.htm and scroll down to "Better labelling rules" and please read the sentence: "Well-established national quality policies will be safeguarded." It can't be expressed clearer.
Michael Pronay, Vienna, Austria
Horror. Of course denominations which are easier to recognize will help the consumer, and thus the industry. But this proposed law looks quite Stalinesque. 'Dolcetto' and 'Barolo' are not the same. We all know this. Combining them into some absurd soviet style equalization will be very confusing for consumers, let alone break down a part of human heritage and wisdom of the ages. A better law would be to have producers always put the grape varieties on their labels, besides geographical names. That will far better help consumers to recognize a wine style, than aggregated and thus less useful regional denominations will.
Willem Wijnen
About your piece "Drastic EU reforms will eliminate Italy's DOC and IGT denominations":
The rumour that was started by the Europe-bashers at Citt" del Vino, and that is now being propagated even by Decanter, concerns the elimination of most italian wine appellations. This is totally absurd because the regulation is very clear, all existing appellations are automatically protected. Here is the text:
Article 51
Existing protected wine names
1. Wine names, which are protected in accordance with Articles 51 and 54 of Regulation (EC) No 1493/1999 and Article 28 of Regulation (EC) No 753/2002, shall automatically be protected under this Regulation. The Commission shall list them in the register provided for in Article 46 of this Regulation.
Not only will the appellations not disappear, but they may continue to use the DOC or DOCG or AOC label, as stated in the regulation:
Article 54
Definition
1. "Traditional term" shall mean a term traditionally used in Member States for products referred to in Article 33(1) to designate:
(a) that the product has a protected designation of origin or geographical indication under Community or Member State law;
(b) the production or ageing method or the quality, colour, type of place, or a particular event linked to the history, of the product with a protected designation of origin or geographical indication.
2. Traditional terms shall be recognised, defined and protected in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 113(1).
Strangely, according to this rumour the only victims of this law are italian. Burgundy and Bordeaux are not complaining about disappearing crus and AOCs.
If the regulation had truly eliminated all these wine areas, it would have implied that the Italian state had agreed to such an absurdity, because EC regulations are are produced by the member states themselves. So if this absurd rumour were true, italians would only have themselves to blame. But it is easier to blame something called "Brussels", for anything, even the bad weather. Luckily, this is a lot of noise about nothing, fuelled by gullible bloggers and journalists.
This regulation suffers from many shortcomings, this is not one of them, and such rumours divert attention from the real problems.
Mike Tommasi, Six Fours, France
It is not with any surprise at all that this news come to me. As a Die Hard Italian citizen and Wine Salesman I have to say for once in my life, that the Swiss governament was right when it decided not to enter in the EU.
Italy it is about traditions, wine is about tradition as much as food, and I can't stand the idea that all these beautiful little appellations will be changed by a bunch of scotch drinkers.
Lets then call all the Tuscan D.O.C.G wines, Brunello DOP! C' mon what next all the "Cold Cuts" will be called Prosciuttos DOP? I completely disagree with this nonsense craziness. My 3 Liras Ooops I was forgetting no more Lira either.
Gabriele Chiocca
If American and Australian wines can do what they say on the label, why can't Europe? Just look at Ridge – why would it need or want an AC, a DOP or an IGP? Let people plant and blend what they like. The market will soon separate the duffers form the geniuses. What's the problem?
David Richardson, London
I really don't agree with the EU decision to cut a straight line and decide that 2 quality status will be available.
Wine is a tradition of many years in which people dedicted their lifes for the love of wine and their region. It took centuries to build a reputation and many hard work to produce quality. Let's work to protect our identity.
Brendon Borg
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Something quite sure : it will never be as described here. Stupidity at this level deserves a gold medal, no doubt !
