Viñedos de España: new designation to go ahead over regional objections
In a report published in the La Vanguardia newspaper on August 5, it was announced the the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fishing and Food (MAPA, in its Spanish acronym) has approved the new geographic designation Viñedos de España (previously commented upon in this blog), which can be used by wines which heretofore had been designated as Vino de la Tierra.
This new designation will go into effect during the 2006-2007 season, which officially begins in August with the start of the grape harvest. However the regions of La Rioja, Catalunya, Galicia, the Basque Country and Castilla y Leon do not support the creation of this new area designation and will not be participating in it. As these regions are some of the most important wine grape producing regions in the country, their rejection could seriously undermine the Viñedos de España designation. Without them, the designation can never be, as had been hoped by MAPA, a truly nationwide concept for a recognized quality standard.
Quoted in the La Vanguardia article was Mr. Joan Santó, head of the viticultural section of the Unió de Pagesos, a growers' association in Catalunya, who said: "Viñedos de España is a designation that is a direct assault on the model for the sector that Catalunya created in 1999 when, by majority consensus, the Catalunya D.O. was created. The Ministry has not been paying attention to the present realities in the sector and this decision only favors the interests of the Catalan agro-industry, which is made of three large companies, and which, furthermore, is harmful to the other eleven D.O.s that exist within Catalunya."
As a group, the opposing regions have complained that the Viñedos de España designation will confuse the consumer, harm the sale of wines produced in Denominaciónes de Origin and will negatively standardize Spanish wines.
Labels: D.O.'s and regions
posted by Steven Tolliver 10:35 AM
3 Comments:
Creating regional designations is a contentious process becuase someone's toes are always going to be stepped on. I must admit I am no expert on Spanish wine, but I have written about the same type of situations in California regarding the AVA system. Several proposed AVAs that theoretically made sense have been shot down over the years.
I mentioned in a previous post that this issue was going to be controversial, and I see it is. As usual, there are so many conflicting interests in play that these initiatives, while certainly positive in many ways, are ineveitably going to meet some stiff resistance...and from some of the big guns too.
By the way, I see that those who oppose the law are in some cases D.O.'s and in others political regions themselves. That further complicates the matter.
One more thing: Is it me or are Mr. Joan Santó's remarks a little confusing?
Mr. Santó's comments are somewhat disingenuous in that one of the main instigators for the creation of the Catalunya D.O. was Bodegas Torres, one of the "big three" he obliquely refers to. Large producers who have vineyards throughout Catalunya can now harvest, assemble and market under one D.O. label a wine produced from grapes grown in widely disparate areas. Small producers went along with the creation of the D.O. as it benefitted them, too. But he is coherent in that now, since Catalan producers have a D.O. that covers nearly all producing areas of Catalunya, why would they want to use the new and unknown Viñedos de España designation when they could use a D.O. designation, which carries more weight?
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