Salut/Hi Mike Tommasi,

le/on Thu, 11 Aug 2005 16:14:26 +0200, tu disais/you said:-


>>>What I _do_ think is ludicrous is that European legislators seem to need to
>>>be so blessed directive all the time. What isn't obligatory is forbidden, it
>>>seems to me, and I don't think that kind of thinking is good at all.
>>>
>>
>> What I can't understand it what is to be gained from forbidding the
>> information on the label? I say leave it up to the grower/winemaker.
>
>There are some oversimplifications in both the above snippets.
>
>First, the EU gives directive and it is up to the sovereign governments
>of each country to apply them by issuing a law. I cannot understand why
>Ian says that what isn't obligatory is forbidden, it sounds like another
>Polish plumber story...

Not knowing the Polish plumber concerned, I can't say. However, you know
perfectly well that the INAO is extremely directive about what can, must and
must not be on front labels. Nearly as directive as they are about what
cepage may and may not be used, whether sugar may or may not be added,
whether acid may or may not be added, so on ad infinitum and WAY past
nauseam. I was slightly parodying, but there's a great deal of truth in what
I say. OK, in the Languedoc, they have more freedom in what they may and may
not do and say on labels, but in many other regions, they have virtually NO
freedom.

I don't share the obsession of varietally anal retentives about what exact
proportion of grapes go into any particular blend, but I really don't see
why the heck some bureaucrat in either Brussels or Paris, Reims or Bordeaux
should tell Francis Boulard or the lovely Mireille Daret what s/he can or
can't put the cepages on their labels, back OR front.
--
All the Best
Ian Hoare
http://www.souvigne.com
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