Standards, Tariffs and Trade: The Rise and Fall of the Raisin Trade between Greece and France in the Late 19th Century and the Definition of Wine

Wine Regulations

“…However, as domestic grape production recovered in France, and under pressure from its wine growers, France raised import tariffs on raisins and defined wine as "the alcoholic fermentation of fresh grapes", thereby forbidding the use of (Greek) raisins to make French wine. This French regulation later became part of EU rules, and today defines "wine" in the EU (Meloni and Swinnen 2017). 11 Clarification (or fining) with gelatine, isinglass, casein, egg albumin, or siliceous earths is permitted in all five jurisdictions (Galpin 2006).…”

“…After a hiatus following the French Revolution, restrictions were again imposed in the 1930s and further strengthened in the postwar period. These regulations served as the basis for regulations in the European Economic Community (EEC) initially introduced in 1970, and further strengthened in 1976 and 1984 (Meloni and Swinnen 2016). 27 EU regulations stipulated that any transfer of planting rights should not lead to an overall increase in production potential.…”

“…Finally, the qualitative rule has been weakened too, as authorizations can also be used for wines without a geographical indication. In theory, this new system introduced some additional flexibility, but Member States again have considerable leeway in imposing further restrictions (Meloni and Swinnen 2016). As a result, it is difficult to say whether the authorizations system is more or less restrictive than the planting rights regime it replaced.…”

The Value of Terroir: A Historical Analysis of the Bordeaux and Champagne Geographical Indications

“…Examples of wine imitations were "false Champagne" wines or "false Bordeaux" wines, labelled and sold as Champagne or Bordeaux but produced in other parts of France (Stanziani 2004). 10 This resulted in major protests of wine producers and sellers from the original wine areas and ultimately in a series of laws to protect the interests of "quality" wine producers by linking the "quality" of the wine to its production region (the "terroir") and the traditional way of producing wine: the system of Appellations d'Origine (AO) (Meloni andSwinnen 2013, 2018). 11 The first regulations, between 1908 and 1911, established the official geographic boundaries (Appellations d'Origine-AO) of four wines: 12 the wine areas of Bordeaux (a red wine produced in the Gironde department in south west France), of Champagne (a sparkling white wine produced in north east France, mainly in the Marne and Aube departments), of Banyuls (a sweet dessert wine produced in south west France) and of Clairette de Die 9 In 2009, Giovannucci et al (2009) estimate that they were more than 10,000 GIs in the world with an estimated trade value of more than 50 billion USD.…”

“…This resulted in several laws in 1907 that defined wine, imposed the notification of annual production levels and forbade the addition of water and sugar in wines (JORF 1907a, b, c;Stanziani 2004). 11 France also introduced high tariffs on wine and grape imports from Italy, Spain and Greece, effectively stopping the wine (and grapes) imports from those countries from 1890s onwards (Pinilla and Serrano 2008;Meloni and Swinnen 2017). 12 The regional boundaries of two other non-wine regions were delimited: Armagnac and Cognac.…”