Alcohol-free wine can be produced, however it will be called “wine” and can also be made within the designations of origin. The only reassurance is that no water can be added in any way, or rather in the discussions underway in Brussels there is no reference to the issue.
It can be called wine
In fact, a real debacle for Italy which had also opened the discussion on the practice of alcohol removal but asking in the first place that these products are not called “wine” and that this practice be excluded for designations of origin. The only point in Italy’s favor at the moment concerns the reassurances on the prohibition of watering, a subject however that in recent weeks had already been considered not on the agenda and therefore to be classified only as the result of a misunderstanding if not of a real fake news.
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This is what emerged from the answer on the chapter on dealcoholation provided by the EU Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski to a question presented by the president of the Constitutional Affairs Commission of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani (Forza Italia, Ppe).
«The potential development of alcohol-free wines – said Commissioner Wojciechowski – represents an important market opportunity for the EU wine sector. Consumer demand for wine products with a lower alcohol content has increased significantly in recent years. In its proposal for the reform of the common agricultural policy (CAP) of 2018, the Commission planned to adapt the EU legal framework for wine to include these new and promising products. And the proposal does not contain any reference to the addition of water ».
But beyond the practice of watering which has been explicitly excluded, some critical points remain. «“ The decision on the proposal – said the EU commissioner – is up to the European Parliament and the Council. In fact, in the ongoing discussions at the trilogue level, the European Parliament and the Council agreed, without prejudice to the outcome of the general negotiations, to consider de-alcoholic and partially de-alcoholic wines as vitivinicultural products, to require a specific labeling for these products and to allow the partial de-alcoholization of wines with a protected designation of origin or protected geographical indication “.