EU wants wine reforms

European winemakers are losing customers at French sidewalk cafes and Italian dinner tables, and the European Union’s top farm official has a drop of advice: Stop confusing wine drinkers.

European wines have a dizzying number of classifications, with many designated by whether the grape is grown on the left or right bank of a river, or to the east or west of an estate.

But wine drinkers in Europe are turning up their noses at Pauillacs and Pomerols in favor of American, South African and Australian wines with easy-to-understand labels. Experts predict that if current trends persist, Europe will soon become a net importer of wine.

“The consumer decides what is taken down the shelves in the supermarkets. The consumer wants simple, clear labeling,” EU Farm Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said Wednesday after meeting with farm ministers from the 25 EU member nations to discuss reforming Europe’s wine sector.

“When you look at the success of the New World wines, some of them specifically use the labeling ‘Chardonnay,’ ‘Sauvignon,’ and people don’t ask for anything but ‘let me get a glass or a bottle of Sauvignon,’ ” she said.

“We need to head in the same direction,” she said.

There’s strong opposition in Europe to changing the sometimes centuries-old rules and traditions governing wine appellations, with names and quality designations depending on grape blends and the area, village or hillside the grapes are cultivated.

But European drinkers are flocking to wines from abroad.

Australia has boosted its exports into the EU from 1.85 million hectoliters (48.9 million gallons) in 2000 to 3 million hectoliters (79.3 million gallons) last year. The U.S. more than doubled its exports from 995,000 hectoliters to 2.16 million over the same period, and South African wines shot from 1.11 million hectoliters to 2.26 million hectoliters, according to the European Commission.

Over a 15-year period, U.S. exports to Europe have risen fourfold, while those from Chile and Australia are 19 times greater, Fischer Boel has said. Even though EU exports rose 20% over the same period, sales of European wine in the U.S. are beginning to slip.

Sales to its top market, the U.S., sank from 3.95 million hectoliters in 2004 to 3.86 million hectoliters last year.

Fischer Boel urged the farm ministers to accept reform. “Those in the sector that want to use the same tools as our successful competitors from outside the EU should be allowed to do so.”