40 WINE LAW for a substantial review of the legal framework on wine quality15, so as to strengthen the compliance of the quality approach with international law. It also aimed to make sure that this new approach was “in line with the horizontal policy of quality”, based on PDOs and on PGIs. In short, the desire to extend the CAP mechanisms to the wine sector prevailed, abandoning the concept of QWpsr, and shaping a system based on designations of origin and geographical indications, as well as the respect for traditional designations. However, the concepts of wine DOs and GIs that both the 2008 and 2013 Regulations integrated differ from those established by the horizontal quality system, leading to a specific oversight system for wine running parallel, instead of it being subsumed into the general system laid down for all other farm products, as suggested by some scholars16. This would have appeared to be the sensible option if real cohesion and strength were to be provided to the system, albeit bringing in some specific elements for the wine sector. As that did not happen, countless duplicities in both Regulations sprang up. This duplicity in both systems and norms will have to be attributed to the widespread view in Europe that the designation of origin for wine is a much more sensible decision that in any other sector, which might prompt the diverse conceptualisation of the concepts under oversight. As such, article 93(1)(a) of the 2013 Regulation – effectively using the same wording as the 2008 one – defines designation of origin as: “the name of a region, a specific place or, in exceptional and duly justifiable cases, a country used to describe a product referred to in Article 92(1) fulfilling the following requirements: (i) the quality and characteristics of the product are essentially or exclusively due to a particular geographical environment with its inherent natural and human factors; (ii) the grapes from which the product is produced come exclusively from that geographical area; (iii) the production takes place in that geographical area; and (iv) the product is obtained from vine varieties belonging to Vitis vinifera”. 15 See COM (2006) 319 final: Communication to the Council and the European Parliament - Towards a sustainable European wine sector, 22 June 2006 (paragraph 6.3.4). 16 According to CORTÉS MARTÍN, J. M., (2003). La protección de las indicaciones geográficas en el comercio internacional e intracomunitario, Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación, Madrid, p. 338, before the 2006 Regulation and the reform of the Common market organisation of the wine sector, that “de lege ferenda we believe we should contemplate a full-scale restructuring of the common protection system of geographical indications, including the wine and spirit drinks sectors pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 2081/92. Bringing the recognition and protection of geographical indications fully under EU’s oversight would give rise to a more pragmatic all-inclusive approach, strengthening the Union’s position in the multilateral negotiations at WTO”.
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