Wine Law

9 and characteristics, instead of “geographical location” as used in the 2012 Regulation. This, I would like to think, should be understood as an interest in placing greater emphasis on the human intervention in the production of wine. It is then appropriate that we should assess the peculiarities identified in Regulation No. 1308/2013 for wine designations against general regulations. To my mind, they do a disservice in bringing in nuances of very little relevance for the winemaking industry. It could well have limited itself to referencing the notion established by the 2012 Regulation — which would then become a truly horizontal regulation — simply alluding to the relevant peculiarities which might well be confined to the requirement of the usable first foodstuff 16 . It might be worth insisting before wrapping up that the Commission calls for consistency in the quality scheme, whatever the scope. The setting up of peculiarities for wine geographical designations might be necessary at some stage, but it certainly will not require separate regulation. 2.2. The controversial differentiation of designations of origin and geographical indications (wine and otherwise) Our attention is drawn now to the boundaries between designations of origin and geographical indications, as they have always been regulated in the same documents since the original text in 1992, without articulating, apparently, relevant dissimilarities in their definitions 17 . This has led some scholars to raise doubts as to whether these two 16 Even this may not be necessary. The norms concerning allowed vine varieties that are allowed come into the Regulation further into it. Both the current one — article 83 — and previous ones impose the Vitis variety for all wines, and the 1999 iteration mentioned the Vitis vinífera as the only variety apt for quality wines psr. 17 In one of the first studies of the 1992 Regulation by renowned scholars, Luigi COSTATO remarked that “both definitions were fundamentally the same” (“sostanziale rassomiglianza delle due definizione”); ibid , “La protezione delle indicazioni geografiche e delle denominazioni d’origine e le attestazioni di specificità”, Rivista di Diritto Agrario ¸1995, 4, p. 492 (the author warns early on in the book that the study was finished in the same year 1992).