Wine Law

3 With widespread production of bottle labels, distribution increased, and the industry was forever changed. This chapter analyses in broad terms the current European legislation on labelling and packaging of the wine with a focus on Italian domestic law. 1.1. The European early framework It is safe to say that the EU wine legislation had a major impact on Italian wine law. For agricultural products, on account of the physical constraints farming is subject to and, above all, given the impossibility of developing competition conditions similar to those characterising the industrial sector, ad hoc “rules of the game” had to be established These rules were not so much to level the starting points as to incorporate the different realities developed in different natural conditions, by steering production and the markets towards the primary objective of ensuring producer profitability 2 . On 1 January 1958, with the coming into force of the Treaty of Rome, ratified with the Act of 4 October 1957, no. 1203, Italy became a founding member of the European Economic Community (EEC) 3 . Not long after, in 1962, the first common market organisation (CMO) was established, although an effective organisation of the wine market did not come until 1970 with the passage of the Common Wine Policy (CWP) in Regulations No 816/70 4 and No 817/70 5 . The underlying motivations of the CWP were protectionist in nature and similar to those found in other statutes: to reduce wide annual fluctuations, to restricting quantity in order to protect the livelihood of wine producers and to raise the quality of the wine. Most importantly, the Community was becoming a single market, within which 2 In the late 1960s, when the common organisations of the markets (COMs) were gradually being put in place, the Commission was determined to limit expenditure on the common agricultural policy (CAP). The uncontrolled increase in cereals and dairy surpluses resulted in expenditure on intervention (guaranteed prices) and market support that took up more and more of the Community budget. At the same time, between 1950 and 1958, the total number of working farmers fell from 18 million to 14.5 million. 3 Since 1962, in the framework of the CAP , it was gradually established a CMO in wine, which, based on a political balance between producer States, was availing itself of different tools to ensure market equilibrium. Such mechanisms were designed to regulate supply by restricting replanting rights and withdrawal at a minimum price guaranteed of surplus production and transformation of the same into alcohol for human consumption, granting premiums for the grubbing-up of vines; to apply a price and intervention regime to table wines (with the exception of “quality wines produced in specific regions”, VQPRD) through the use of distillation, or the consumption or in fuel. However, the conditions of the EU wine market have since changed, and accrued globalisation has made the competition more heated. 4 Regulation (EEC) No 816/70 of the Council of 28 April 1970 laying down additional provisions for the common organisation of the market in wine. 5 Regulation (EEC) No 817/70 of the Council of 28 April 1970 laying down special provisions relating to quality wines produced in specified regions.