The National Wine Council is born

The most important initiative in the world of Italian wine in recent years became a reality on April 17 with the creation of the National Wine Council. Proposed by the National Organization of Wine Tasters (ONAV), its members also include, for now, the Italian Sommeliers Association (AIS), the Italian Federation of Sommeliers, Hotels and Restaurants (FISAR) and the Associations of Professional Italian sommeliers (ASPI) for the sector of sommeliers; Slow Food to represent consumers and wine lovers; and the Wine Tourism Movement, Women of Wine association, the National Federation of Independent Winemakers (FIVI), the Italian Federation of Industrial (wine) Producers (Federvini) and the Italian Wines Union (UIV) representing the productive sector. Invitations to join have been extended to Federdoc and the Italian Enologists Association. The Council was formed not to seek funds from the government or the European Union but to act as a talking partner representing the wine sector in consultations with the Rome government and thus, indirectly, the EU in regard to the polices it intends to adopt in the area of the consumption of alcoholic beverages. For some time now, the EU’s Committee on National Alcohol Policy and Action (CNAPA) has no longer been focusing on alcohol abuse but rather the ‘’harmful use or harmful consumption’’ of alcoholic beverages. This shift could lead to very dire consequences for the winemaking sector and its image. Among the objectives CNAPA has set are the reduction of alcoholic consumption in the EU by 10%, reducing to zero the percentage of alcohol drivers can have in their system, slashing funds for promoting alcoholic beverages offered by the Common Organization of Agricultural Markets (COM) and requiring labels on alcoholic beverages to carry messages that discourage their consumption on health grounds, similar to those now on cigarette packs. They would also like to ban any advertisement of alcoholic beverages in the printed media, television and online. These are not pipedreams but real projects some of which are already in progress. While no one wants to underestimate problems related to alcohol abuse, which must be dealt with in a serious and effective way, there are certain traditions that are thousands of years old which must be taken into consideration along with the fact that producing wine also involves protecting the environment and employs a large sector of the population. Furthermore, the consumption wine and other alcoholic beverages are an integral and significant part of the cultural mentality in many EU countries and thus it should be approached from other points of view aside from just that of health. Many wine producing countries, including Italy, have already been regulating the sector on their own, as evidenced by the fact that only 40 years ago per capita consumption in Italy was over 100 liters a year while today it is one third of that. The same trend has more or less taken place in France, Spain and Portugal. Since there is a risk of a rampant anti-alcohol ideology spreading in Europe it is important to contrast it in a more organized and effect way than in the past.