WINENEWS PREVIEW – THE NEW MODIFICATIONS TO THE ITALIAN MINISTRY OF POLITICS WINE REGULATION 164/92. THE GOAL IS TO APPROVE IT WITHIN SIX MONTHS

With a primary reading of the modifications proposed by members of Italy’s Ministry of Agriculture on September 16, 2009 to Law 164/92, WineNews has discovered that it is more an adaptation to the new rules made by the European Union in regards to IGP and DOP disciplines than a radical change to the text created in 1992, though there are some interesting novelties involved.

The draft of the proposed changes to be made to Law 164/92, the foundation for Italian wine regulations, will be reviewed by various institutions and will then be passed or refused shortly. The National Wine Committee invited Giuseppe Martelli to discuss the proposed modifications and all of the category’s associations have also reunited to discuss the text with the Ministry of Agriculture. And the Ministry’s goal is to render these modifications active within six months.

The most evident novelty of this act is its “non-novelty”, or rather the fact that the “old” terms for wine denominations DOCG, DOC, IGT will remain active in Italy.
One change, however, has effectively been made to the law in order to comply with the new EU regulations. It will now be mandatory to indicate all of the grape varieties that are used for specific disciplinaries.

Another novelty is the modification made in regards to the unification of data relative the area of land covered by vineyards.

And, lastly, with the new modifications, it will no longer be possible to create inter-professional councils for denominations of origin and geographic indications and the functions of consortiums have also been modified with a new article created specifically to introduce third party controllers for consortiums.