Wine Law

THE 2019 RUSSIAN LAW ON VITICULTURE AND WINEMAKING 491 The year 2014 became a watershed in modern Russian history. The Russian legislation became applicable in the Crimea Peninsula, and Crimean wines were banned from all Western markets, with their sales shifting entirely to Russia, which, in turn, reduced the import of a wide range of foreign agricultural products on its territory with the view of explicitly supporting the development of the local production. The import of wine from abroad remained untouched, but, as of 2016, in line with the general upsurge of national agriculture, Russian wine production climbed significantly – up to a quarter – and the investments in grape farming increased 27 . At that stage, any wine import restriction was considered not appropriate until the quantity of the proper wine production was not sufficient for the internal market 28 , so the need for an aimed support of the Russian wine industry was quite well understood, and the process of completing the necessary legislative course was accelerated. Internal and external factors coincided to create an impetus for the achievement of an important new goal – to restore the Russian wine excellence and put it on the world stage. In 2015, an amendment to Federal Law No. 171-FZ introduced a classification of the Russian wines by their place of origin 29 , which would gain the classifications “Protected Geographical Indication” (Защищённое географическое указание вина – ЗГУ), coinciding, in principle, with the relevant administrative region, and “Protected Appellation of Origin” (Защищённое наименование места происхождения – ЗНМП), related to a specific geographical place 30 . The import substitution trend (импортозамещение - importozameshchenie) was set up to replace, where possible, the foreign products with domestic ones, and, in May 2017, the Ministry of Finance issued an order to withdraw the preferential excise taxes for imported wine suppliers 31 . Since the local producers’ context was rather depressive, such a measure proved to be salvific, as, in the previous 20 years, the share of imported wine on the Russian market fluctuated within a wide range of 25% to 70% of the total volume. Almost two-thirds of the wine labelled as Russian was, in fact, made from imported grape material 32 , most frequently called “bulk wine” – an unqualifiable wine mixture with unclear origin and quality shipped in containers worldwide to be later bottled on arrival. 27 Source : https://www.vedomosti.ru/business/articles/2016/09/16/657181-sanktsii-podstegnuli- vinodelov. 28 Source : https://m.dp.ru/a/2015/06/25/Krimskie_vinodeli_va_ocher. 29 Source : https://swn.ru/articles/zgu-i-znmp-chto-nado-znat. 30 Ibid . 31 Source : http://importozamechenie.ru/minfin-boretsya-za-importozameshhenie-v-otechestvennom- vinodelii/. 32 Ibid .