Germany Sour Over US-EU Wine Deal
US methods of using water to dilute the alcohol and ageing wine with woodchips to improve flavor should be unacceptable in Europe. The EU has approved a transatlantic deal opening the glutted European wine market to imports from the US. But Germany has called for imposing a "purity law" to protect European wines from US vintners' practices. German Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer said a new European Union code is necessary to assure the quality of European wines. US practices such as adding water to dilute the alcohol and ageing wine with woodchips to improve flavor are unacceptable in Europe, he said. "It's absolutely unclear why we bother having rules for the production and labeling of wine in Europe if they are not applied to agreements with other countries," he said. Numerous European lawmakers have long accused the US industry of cheapening wine by using the new methods. Adding water and sugar to wine is permitted in the United States but not the EU, as are so-called designer wines, which are separated into their various components in laboratories before being rebuilt for a more consistent taste.
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