Diario Oficial de la Unión Europea del 15/1/2024 - Comunicaciones e Informaciones
Version en texte Qu'est-ce que c'est?Dateas est un site Web indépendant, non affilié à un organisme gouvernemental. La source des documents PDF que nous publions est l'agence officielle indiquée dans chacun d'eux. Les versions en texte sont des transcriptions non officielles que nous faisons pour fournir de meilleurs outils d'accès et de recherche d'informations, mais peuvent contenir des erreurs ou peuvent ne pas être complètes.
Source: Diario Oficial de la Unión Europea - Comunicaciones e Informaciones
EN
OJ C, 15.1.2024
In the view of the Commission services, this does not seem to be the case since the rationale of the above provision, i.e.
that oenological practices having opposed objectives should be excluded, does not support this interpretation.
4
The Commission indicated that blending wine with de-alcoholised wine to produce partially de-alcoholised is not authorised since it is not listed in Annex VIII, Section E of the CMO. However, could this process be considered as a coupage? Indeed, Article 71 of Regulation EU 2019/934 states that coupage is a mixture of wines or musts of different origins, different vine varieties, different harvest years or different categories of wine or must. The provisions of the CMO classify de-alcoholised and partially de-alcoholised wines in the general category of wines.
It seems therefore possible to consider that mixing a wine with a de-alcoholised wine from another harvest year, for example could be equated to coupage. Could the Commission confirm or refute this interpretation?
In accordance with Regulation EU No 1308/2013, the following conditions must be fulfilled in order to be able to place on the market a wine as partially de-alcoholised:
1. The base wine before de-alcoholisation must fulfil all the characteristics of one of the categories of grapevine products set out in points 1 and 4 to 9 of Part II of Annex VII to the same Regulation.
2. The alcohol content of the final product must be more than 0,5 % and less than 8,5 % or 9 % for wines referred to in point 1 of Part II of Annex VII to the same Regulation.
3. In order to reduce the alcohol content of the base wine, a de-alcoholisation process must take place.
4. The term partially de-alcoholised must accompany the designation of the product on the label.
When a batch of fully de-alcoholised wine is mixed with a batch of non de-alcoholised wine, the resulting alcoholic beverage could be called wine if its alcohol content is equal to or greater than 8,5-9 %, because this could be regarded as blending or coupage.
If, on the other hand, the alcohol content of the beverage obtained is less than 8,5-9 %, the beverage cannot be called wine because the minimum alcohol content for wine is not reached. Nor can it be called partially de-alcoholised wine because the reduction of alcohol content is due to the blending and not to a partial de-alcoholisation process see condition 3 above.
Blending and coupage should not be used to circumvent the rules on de-alcoholisation and to place on the market as partially de-alcoholised wine a blend of wine and de-alcoholised wine, which is done with the purpose to produce a partially de-alcoholised wine without having recourse to a de-alcoholisation process. As mentioned above, the applicable EU legislation does not allow for carrying out such an operation. The product resulting from such blend could be possibly marketed only as long as it is not designated as partially de-alcoholised wine and the consumer is properly informed about the characteristics of this product in accordance with Regulation EU No 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers 3 FIC Regulation and in particular, Article 7 thereof.
On the other hand, the product obtained from the mixing of a batch of partially de-alcoholised wine with another batch of partially de-alcoholised wine could be called partially de-alcoholised wine because it corresponds to a blend between wines which have both been partially de-alcoholised.
3 Regulation EU No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011 on the provision of food information to consumers, amending Regulations EC No 1924/2006 and EC No 1925/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and repealing Commission Directive 87/250/EEC, Council Directive 90/496/EEC, Commission Directive 1999/10/EC, Directive 2000/13/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, Commission Directives 2002/67/EC and 2008/5/EC and Commission Regulation EC No 608/2004 Text with EEA relevance OJ L 304, 22.11.2011, p. 18, ELI: http data.europa.eu/eli/reg/
2011/1169/oj.
2/8
ELI: http data.europa.eu/eli/C/2024/694/oj
