By Vestnik Kavkaza
A new stage is beginning in the history of Russian viniculture. Before 2015, Russia oriented toward wine itself, while the whole world oriented itself toward grapes which are used for production of wine and the geographical situation of wine production. Soon Russian wines with protected geographical indications will appear. The deputy head of the State Duma Committee for Economic Policy and Entrepreneurship, Victor Zvagelsky, thinks it is a serious success on the way to a prospering wine sector.
On December 31st 2014 an epochal draft for Russian viniculture on amendments to Federal Law 171 was adopted. The status of small Russian vineyards was legalized. The draft requires a decrease of administrative barriers and launches a simplified form of licensing of small vineyards. It should encourage their development and indirectly boost their competitiveness.
“The draft shows our serious struggle for Russian wine and Russian producers exist legally. We managed to legalize our domestic producers, our vineyards which actually used to be illegal and worked on sheer enthusiasm.”
According to Zvagelsky, the draft makes Russian viniculture a part of world viniculture: “We became a part of the international community in understanding and classification of viniculture. This is a case when we should look at the development, classification and protection of viniculture in all countries which are thought to be leaders in these spheres. Classifications which have been launched meet modern international practice, and today we can say confidently that when wines with protected geographical indications appear in stores, it will meet what we call “appellation” and so on.”
The MP thinks that Russian producers have all the necessary conditions for becoming a part of the world wine elite: “We are a part of the world elite of wine producers, according to formal attributes (we have mentioned this in the draft) and quality. Even the viniculture and wine production which existed actually illegally were good and of high quality; but there was no chance of making it legal.”
Zvagelsky stresses that the initiators of the amendments to the law don’t want to stop at the achievements in the issue of the status of domestic viniculture and vineyards. “We did our best so that domestic producers had some benefits in issuing a license. It was difficult to defend the minimum which is described in the law, and we don’t want to stop. The benefits in licensing are very important, not only from the legal point of view, but also from the point of view of common sense and the economy. Of course, we speak about small estates which have no resources for expensive equipment or control systems. At the same time, we believe the violation of tax laws is unacceptable. We try to prove to the government that nothing will go wrong if there were some benefits and simplification in licensing; it can be only better. We have launched the notion of self-regulated organizations which will become a reliable support in the sphere of viniculture regulation. Today a revolutionary breakthrough has been made for domestic viniculture, but this is only the beginning. Today we are developing new amendments to Federal Law 171. They touch on domestic viniculture and preferences for those who grow grapes on Russian territory and produce high-quality wine,” Zvagelsky stressed.
