DEFINITION OF WINE 397 According to Regulation (EU) 1308/2013, of 17 December 2013, establishing a common organisation of the markets in agricultural products, each Member State shall classify which wine grape varieties4 may be planted, replanted or grafted on their territories for wine production [art 81(2)]. However, two requirements must be observed by the Member States, one positive and one negative. The positive requirement is that the grape variety belongs to the species Vitis vinifera or comes from a cross between that species and other species of the genus Vitis. The negative one is that six species are forbidden, these being Noah, Othello, Isabelle, Jacquez, Clinton and Herbemont. Nevertheless, Member States may modify these rules, taking into account scientific research and experimental purposes, and the Member States that do not reach a particular production – 50,000 hectolitres per wine year, calculated based on the average production during the last five wine years – are exempt from this classification obligation. Accordingly, the Member States producing more than amount should continue to classify the wine grape varieties from which wine may be made on their territories5. 2. THE LEGAL DEFINITION OF WINE 2.1. Background Defining wine responds to a normative function, to conduct human behaviour. For this reason, the legal definition of wine is also a position taken by legislators concerning reality, to welcome social representation. Indeed, wine has a precise legal definition that includes the different types of wine and a quantitative classification linked to its geographic origin. It is essential to focus on the object of this diversified normative reality: wine, what this ancestral product of human labour represents for the law and how it is legally defined and disciplined at the national, European Union and international levels. 4 For instance, in the French Rural Code, the classification of the variety of grapes is established by an arreté of the Minister of Agriculture. For wines without a geographical indication, it will be possible to plant any grape variety throughout the metropolitan area, as long as it belongs to the list of grape varieties registered in the Official Catalog of Vine Varieties as that variety of wine grapes. In 2013, OIV published a list of vine varieties and their synonyms, available in https://www.oiv.int/public/medias/2273/oiv-liste-publication-2013-complete.pdf. 5 Recital 81.
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