Wine Law

1 Designations of Origin within the EU: Legal Challenges Tomás Prieto Álvarez * 1. Preamble; 2. Towards a Greater Conceptual Certainty in the Matter of Designations of Origin; 2.1. Wine European geographical designations’ peculiarity; 2.2. The controversial differentiation of designations of origin and geographical indications (wine and otherwise); 2.2.1. Non-wine geographical indications; 2.2.2. Wine geographical indications; 3. The Nebulous Formulation of the Legal Status: Its Public-Law Nature; 4. Preservation of the Common Market in Designations of Origin; 4.1. European and national quality schemes for origin-labelled products: substitution or coexistence; 4.2. Internal distribution of powers over designations of origin; 5. The Scope of Designations of Origin within the Agri-food Sector; 5.1. Various attempts at regulation and the role of courts: current uncertainty in the European Union; 5.2. Scholars’ views; 5.3. Personal assessment; 6. Supervision of Designations: Verification of Compliance with Product Specification. 1. Preamble Undeniably, the momentum that the winemaking industry is gaining can be confidently attributed to the setting up of the designation of origin: almost unfailingly, the industry has prospered wherever geographical designation 1 took hold. Interestingly, it was wine that propelled this remarkable legal status into existence in France, initially. At that time, in the later 19 th century, the Union de Maisons de Champagne was granted sole ownership of that name for the sparkling wines grown in that region. Hence, it might *Administrative Law Lecturer at Burgos University (Spain). 1 The parallel growth, in terms of both size and quality, of the wine lake and its corresponding designations of origin is very apparent in Spain. Take as a very telling example the case of Ribera del Duero, one of the wine designations of origin that has bolstered its production most in the past decades, with highly flattering figures: over a lifespan of 35 years it has moved from 7 registered wineries up to 300.