It will probably become common in the future for an appellation to require all their producers to have some sustainability label. AOP Côtes de Bourg in Bordeaux wants to go one step further. Here they want to specify that the producers must be certified Haute Valeur Environnementale (HVE), the sustainability label of the French Ministry of Agriculture.
This has not gone down well with the organic producers in the appellation. And they are many, over 30%. They have a hard time accepting that they need additional certification.
Riku Väänänen, producer in Côtes de Bourg at Château Puybarbe, tells BKWine Magazine that he does not think it is possible for an appellation, let alone a national body like INAO (which must approve the rules), to prioritize one label over another. “The AOP now waits to hear back from the national bodies to see what will be their recommendation on how far an appellation can go (if the vote is democratic) and how to let each valued certification co-live and still taking all the producers further in the right direction of more sustainable viticulture.”
Travel: Come on a wine tour to Bordeaux with BKWine.
