Steep slope viticulture – Overlooked by the reform

ADVID, the association of wine producers in Douro (Portugal) and member of Euromontana shared its concern about the future of steep slope viticulture. They have participated in the Assembly of AREV (Association of European Wine-producing regions). The following is an AREV press release.

The Steep Slope Viticulture Commission of the Assembly of European Wine-producing Regions (AREV) gathered in Turin, the Piedmont capital, on the 23rd January, under the aegis of their Agricultural Assessor, Giorgio Ferrero, and the Vice President of the AREV Professional Board, Ettore Ponzo. The delegates from around a dozen wine-producing regions and European appellation zones* especially concerned by this steep slope natural handicap (more than 30%) studied the measures to be recommended to the European institutions in order to safeguard, organise and promote this exceptional heritage – a heritage that was overlooked by the most recent PAC reforms.

Underlining the irreplaceable nature of these zones with their significant and multiple functions, socioeconomic (safeguarding of the activity and employment, promotion of the territories), landscape (tourist attraction, wine tourism), environmental (preservation of the soil, water management) and without any possible alternative production for the territories concerned, AREV calls for specific consideration to be taken and alerts the Commission and the Parliament to the measures that must rapidly be implemented to reduce the major competitiveness disparity that exists between steep-slope wine making and wine production on the plains.

In view of the forthcoming 2016 relaxation of the planting regulations, AREV anticipates an increase in competitive pressures and fears that vineyards located on steep slopes will progressively relocate to the plains via planting authorisation transfers. AREV urgently demands that a ban on the transfer of planting authorisations of vines situated on steep slopes to zones on the plains should be introduced into the delegated acts and the execution of the CMO as a matter of priority.

AREV demands recognition and a specific status for this endangered form of wine-making, as well as the implementation of specific aid measures within the two pillars of the CAP.

* Baden-Wurttemberg (GER), Rhineland-Palatinate (GER), Styria (AUS), Alsace (FR), Rhône-Alpes (FR), Lombardy (IT), Piedmont (IT), Sicily (IT), Trentino (IT), Val d’Aosta (IT), Luxembourg (LU)

For more information, please contact AREV press contact: Dominique Janin – djanin@arev.org – Tel : + 49 7802 70 36 37