During this discussion, the Director General highlighted the involvement of the Executive Agency on Vine and Wine, represented by its Director, Mr Krasimir Koev, and made reference to various avenues that would enable Bulgaria to position itself as one of the leading viticultural countries in the Black Sea area. Among the activities envisaged, two areas could be given priority, namely the organisation of a regional scientific and technical forum in Bulgaria and the involvement of the country's university and professional sector in the OIV's Master's programme (the MSc OIV in Wine Management).
In addition, H.E. Mr Anguel Tcholakov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Bulgaria in France, supported the idea of organising a presentation of his country's wines at the OIV headquarters during the exhibition of Thracian treasures from Bulgaria, a cultural event that is to be held at the Louvre in spring 2015.
The Minister for Agriculture also stressed the importance she attached to strengthening the contribution of Bulgarian expertise within the OIV as part of the rural development programme, certain aspects of which particularly affect native table grapes and wine grapes.
Mr Jean-Marie Aurand, accompanied by Dr Jean-Claude Ruf (Scientific Coordinator of the OIV), presented statistics relating to production, trade and consumption of wine around the world and the latest developments as part of the WHO expert meeting dedicated to evaluating global alcoholic beverage consumption.
This meeting falls within the framework of the collaboration between the WHO and the OIV, which was initiated several years ago. Indeed, the WHO uses OIV data to a significant extent as a basis for the evaluation of the production and consumption of alcohol of vitivinicultural origin in various countries around the world.
The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) is proposing to amend its regulations to permit the use of American viticultural area (AVA) names as appellations of origin (AO) on labels for wines that would otherwise qualify for the use of the AVA name, except that the wines have been fully finished in a State adjacent to the State in which the viticultural area is located, rather than the State in which the labeled viticultural area is located.
The proposal would provide greater flexibility in wine production and labeling while still ensuring that consumers are provided with adequate information as to the identity of the wines they purchase.
TTB permits the use of viticultural area names as appellations of origin on wine labels, so that vintners may better describe the origin of their wines and consumers may better identify the wines they may purchase.