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Rioja Consejo's Daroca says new proposals will cover breakaway Alava group's demands

Published:  12 October, 2016

Rioja's wine board has hit back at plans to establish the new breakaway appellation, Vineyards of Alava, by saying new proposals for single estate vineyards and labels would aim to satisfy demands from producers

Rioja's wine board has hit back at plans to establish the new breakaway appellation, Vineyards of Alava, by saying new proposals for single estate vineyards and labels would aim to satisfy demands from producers.

"We are very close to reaching an agreement which will allow for single estate vineyards to co-exist and complement the existing categories of Joven, Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva," said José María Daroca, the Chairman of Rioja's wine board, the Consejo Regulador DOCa Rioja.

In an exclusive interview with Harpers.co.uk, Daroca said the proposals would reveal that there would be very little difference between the rules of single estate vineyards of the Rioja appellation and those of the planned Vineyards of Alava appellation that was submitted to the Basque government in the summer.

Rioja's wine board said it was planning to give fresh tools to producers which may allow them to place the names of villages, municipalities and Pagos on the labels of Rioja wines.

It is currently considering a move to allow producers to place a separate sticker on bottles to allow producer to give more information about their wines. "What commercial sense will it make to have Vineyards of Alava once you have single estate vineyards under the Rioja appellation?" one source at the Rioja wine board argued.

Rioja's wine board has, however, come under fire from local producers who say the board is controlled by industrial groups whose interests lie in the production of Rioja en masse at low grape prices; with increasing demand for Rioja worldwide, producers complain that this has led to greater reduction in the number of growers who have been forced to sell their grapes at low prices to industrial groups.

Daroca admitted that companies with the greatest economic power have more influence over Rioja's wine board as they have the majority of board votes, but he said its new proposals would show that the board was taking on demands from smaller producers.

"It can be difficult to reach an agreement when you have 600 producers and 20,000 growers in Rioja, but our move shows that we consider good ideas whether they come from small producers or large companies," Daroca said.

He said the wine board's technical team was evaluating proposals from eight different associations in its bid to establish single vineyards and new labelling rights with new rules expected to be approved in November.

Rioja's wine board said it was now concentrating its efforts on value and diversity and the quality of wines, rather than purely on volumes and that it was striking a balance between production levels and sales.

"An agreement in 2015 between both small and large producers to limit plantings in Rioja for three years to 360 new hectares per year shows that we want controlled growth and to protect the patrimony of vineyards." Daroca said.

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