EU: Wine put up for tender and distillation

By just-drinks.com editorial team | 30 October 2006

The European Union is looking to offload 100,000 hectolitres of wine for distillation.

The wine, which is stored in two locations in France, has been put out to tender with a deadline for bids of 10 November.

Earlier this year, the European Commission proposed what it called a "root-and-branch reform of the European Union's wine sector". The proposal was made as the EU again doled out grants to winemakers in the region to distill their alcohol for industrial use.

"This is an unsustainable - some might say crazy - way to spend taxpayers' money," said EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel at the time.

The Commission hopes to introduce plans which include ending crisis distillation while returning to a scheme of grubbing up vines and extending the system of planting rights to limit production.

Sectors: Wine