Viticulture, the law regulating the sector is now operational

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The new regional law governing the management and control of viticulture, which incorporates the innovations that have been affecting the wine sector in recent years, has recently been implemented.

With this law the Regione Toscana implements the provisions of the community regulations and the ministerial decrees on the subject of viticulture, which have recently been issued, including significant innovations introduced by the European Union.

From January 2016, new rules for the vineyard planting rights have entered into force. It was therefore necessary to adapt the regional legislation.

The new law regulates the “schedario viticolo” (vineyard register) established by Artea and provides all the administrative procedures needed to manage the region’s viticulture potential. It establishes the terms, the administrative powers and penalties for each procedure. The provisions that regulate the management of the production of DOC, DOCG and IGT wines have also been confirmed, but updated according to the new rules, both to take account of climate trends and to establish a market equilibrium and to protect wine denominations.

Still on the subject of designations of origin, following the proposal of the consortia, the Regione Toscana will now be able to regulate the registration of vineyard land for the purposes of the denomination. The Regione, in other words, can enable possibilities for a wine denomination to expand, or not. The provisions of the law do not apply to cultivated vineyards with an extension of two hundred square meters or less per owner, whose production is destined exclusively for family consumption, as already provided for by the regional legislation already in force.

One significant change is the introduction of the ban on the transfer of vineyard planting rights outside Tuscany, deriving from the grubbing up of vineyards carried out for temporary rental contracts registered for less than seven years. This is in order to prevent fiscal evasion and contravention of community legislation, which apply to Tuscany.

The provision won’t apply to the vineyard planting rights issued following the grubbing-up of a vineyard concluded before the entry into force of the recently approved regulation.

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