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The root of the problem is over production in both France and Spain (and Italy) in bulk wine and lower tier of everyday wines, combined with lowering consumptio

by dejv 9y ago

The root of the problem is over production in both France and Spain (and Italy) in bulk wine and lower tier of everyday wines, combined with lowering consumption in all of those traditional wine consuming countries. Production of these wines are not very labor intensive: harvest is done mechanically, pruning is semi automated and most of the other operations are either not done or automated. All of those vineyards use irrigation to increase yields. Those are not very interesting wines, but we are talking about approx. 0.5 euros per litre (when buying in bulk) wines. It is not that they can't compete against it, they just want to make sure they have market for themselves as it is saturated.

danmaz74 9y ago
So, are we going to have quotas for wine too? :(
- dejv 9y ago
  We already have, not if you are France or Italy of course. I do own quite some land, but I was not able to plant in there, because of quota. 70% of wine consumption in Czech republic have to be imported and we were not allowed to plant new vineyards. The rules changed last year and we can plant up to 1% of our allowed area now. Still not enough.
  - dep_b 9y ago
    Weird. I would expect a lot of potentially nice Grüner Veltliner type of wines from CZ. The EU works in mysterious ways.
  - vram22 9y ago
    >70% of wine consumption in Czech republic have to be imported and we were not allowed to plant new vineyards. Why is that?
    - dejv 9y ago
      Because of EU enforced quota. Even if your land is in vineyard apellation place you can't plant any new vineyard. This rule was enforced as we were joining the union, it is basically way to ensure big producing countries with over production have enough of market to sell their product. Local producers are able to sell all of their wines without much problem and there is demand for more, but there is nothing we can do about it. Prices of vineyard land did grow 400% over last 10 years and there is huge consolidation going on. Not great place to be independent winemaker with expansion plans.
      - vram22 9y ago
        400% is a lot. A pity about those rules.

by dejv 9y ago

danmaz74 9y ago

So, are we going to have quotas for wine too? :(

dejv 9y ago
We already have, not if you are France or Italy of course. I do own quite some land, but I was not able to plant in there, because of quota. 70% of wine consumption in Czech republic have to be imported and we were not allowed to plant new vineyards. The rules changed last year and we can plant up to 1% of our allowed area now. Still not enough.
- dep_b 9y ago
  Weird. I would expect a lot of potentially nice Grüner Veltliner type of wines from CZ. The EU works in mysterious ways.
- vram22 9y ago
  >70% of wine consumption in Czech republic have to be imported and we were not allowed to plant new vineyards. Why is that?
  - dejv 9y ago
    Because of EU enforced quota. Even if your land is in vineyard apellation place you can't plant any new vineyard. This rule was enforced as we were joining the union, it is basically way to ensure big producing countries with over production have enough of market to sell their product. Local producers are able to sell all of their wines without much problem and there is demand for more, but there is nothing we can do about it. Prices of vineyard land did grow 400% over last 10 years and there is huge consolidation going on. Not great place to be independent winemaker with expansion plans.
    - vram22 9y ago
      400% is a lot. A pity about those rules.