Wine Law

11 The “ General provisions ” (Chapter 1, Art.1-9) define the scope of the regulation, limit its application to the commercial only wine related activities, delineate the hierarchy of the other applicable norms to be later adopted within the federal legal system, define 80 basic concepts to be used in this sector of economy and state the goals for the government policy to be achieved as well as the necessary for this achievement measures. Consequently, powers are conceded to government and regional bodies for the realisation of control, measurements or other types of verification of the origin, quality and authenticity of the grape plants and the wine itself. Special attention is paid to “the self-regulatory organisations of winegrowers and winemakers” to which the local productive network is consigned. Chapter 2 deals with the grape growing in details (Art.10-17) – the recognition of the plantations as grape growing, their registration in a special federal register, the concession of passports for each one with their particular data. Further measure of verification is the creation of an inventory of the grape plantations in order to monitor the possible discrepancies between the actual state of the grape plantations and the data available in the federal register. The agricultural activity is subject also to phytosanitary control over the grape plantations and to cataloguing the grape varieties, a preference being given to the autochthonous ones and the varieties of domestic selection. In order to keep veridical statistics grape harvest declaration are to be submitted annually, indicating the grape volumes harvested from each grape plantation. A system of wine tasting panels is established in the grape growing and winemaking zones to conduct regular sensory evaluation of the quality of viticulture and wine products. Relevant research institutions are to be involved in the procedure for the establishment and the operation of these panels. Properly the winemaking is dealt with in Chapter 3 (Art. 18-28). First the classification of the different types of wine products is given 48 – the wines could be distinguished on the basis of the sugar content, on the basis of the ethyl alcohol by volume (the fortified wines), on the basis of the aging period (including the sparkling 48 There is an inexactitude in the English translation of the US Department of Agriculture, cited above in note 40. The title wording of Art. 18 is “Classification of the different types of wine products” (Классификация отдельных видов винодельческой продукции), not “Classification of certain types of wine products” – the listing that follows is limitative, not by way of example.