One part of the new EU wine reform is that from the first of August it will be possible to put the grape variety (e.g. riesling) on the label for wines “without geographic denomination”. Typically, this refers to wines that fall outside the traditional AOC (AOP) rules for a region. Say you make a riesling wine in Languedoc. Riesling is not a permitted variety in AOC (AOP) Languedoc so instead the wine will have to be made “without geographic denomination”, what used to be called Vin de Table, but on a VdT it was forbidden to specify the grape variety. But with the reform it will now be possible to put the variety on the label. But the Alsace producers are not happy with this. They think that putting e.g. riesling or gewürztraminer on a wine that does not come from Alsace will confuse customers and devalue Alsatian wines. Therefore they want to forbid growers in other regions to mention the “Alsatian” varieties. The French have now launched a committee that will try and find a compromise. Another example of counterproductive and narrow self-interests that hinders a progression towards a better functioning wine market? After all, there are plenty of wines out there that say riesling, gewürztraminer etc on the label from e.g. Germany, Spain, not to mention the New World. So again, we have some French producers hindering other French producers to compete better against wine producers from other countries.
