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Hidden
(and forgotten) somewhere among Greece's wine laws, is a regulation that
forbids the commercialisation of AOC wines in bottles larger than 75cl.
This is not the edict of a deranged legislator with a hate for magnums
and jeroboams, but a relic from earlier times when screw-top, 5-litre
bottles were the norm just as AOC wines were struggling to
distance themselves from inexpensive wines sold in bulk. So the
legislator's intent to protect quality wines has been turned on its
head, and furthermore has made outlaws out of respectable growers.
When Greece joined the Common Market
back in 1981 its wine legislation, inspired by France and implemented by
a superbly staffed Ministry of Agriculture, was ahead of its time. Now,
the majority of winegrowers see it as antiquated and counter-productive.
And in true Greek fashion, when a law is deemed by a sort of general
consensus to be irrelevant, it is simply ignored. For example, visitors
to Greece are always amazed at the display of massive civil disobedience
by the thousands of motorcyclists who refuse to wear a helmet. From time
to time there is a government crackdown on the Vespa-riding desperados,
but invariably a few weeks later all is forgotten and things go back to
normal.
A crackdown in the vineyard, however,
is a totally different matter. If you have created a multi-million
drachma estate where you perhaps should not have, or if your
ten-year-old varietal make-up is not what the law provided for, you
cannot just uproot, transform and comply temporarily
until "things come back to normal".
That is why Greek winemakers were up in
arms last May, against a proposed reform of the "vin de pays"
legislation that aimed to close some loopholes that have allowed AOC and
vin de pays wines to be commercialised under the same name, or indeed
estates to use the name of a village from an AOC area as their brand
name for the production of a vin de pays wine. All this might seem
complicated, but what is boils down to is that you either follow the
logic of the AOC system all the way or you don't adopt it at all.
As has been the case in other
countries, some AOC wines in Greece have been upstaged by "vin de pays" newcomers
who couldn't care less for traditional varietal make-ups. The success of
Syrah and Merlot, are two such examples, the only surprise is that it
has taken Greek producers so long to see their international appeal.
At the same time the "vin de
pays" status has allowed wineries to commercialise their products
with an indication of
origin, vintage and grape variety on the label, instead of selling them
as lowly and faceless "vin de table" wines. In other words,
established patterns in both production and commercialisation have been
upset and this has inevitably created tensions.
The co-operatives, who still produce
half the national production but bottle less than 10%, see themselves as
the guarantors of Greece's AOC areas and the county's indigenous
varieties. They wish to curtail the plantings of international varieties
within the AOC zones, as well as the spread of "vin de pays"
varietals.
Across the table, is the Greek Wine
Federation, which represents more than 80% of Greek exports. After a
series of compromises, the main disagreement between the two remains the
established practice by a number of estates to produce both an AOC wine
(usually with Greek varieties) and a vin de pays (usually a blend with
international varieties), under the same estate name. The co-operatives,
backed by the Ministry of Agriculture, want to force the estates to
choose one or the other.
Whatever the outcome, Greek wine is
paying for the absence of a master plan. For too many years, both the
Ministry of Agriculture and the various professional organisations
involved with wine have been following a relatively painless incremental
decision-making approach that has managed to keep everyone happy. Now
the grapes have hit the fan and everyone is unhappy. So it goes in the
land of Dionysos.
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