Wines, competitivity, environment and health policies of the companies in the SUDOE area - support in implementing methodologies

VINOVERT is an innovative and structuring project for the vine / wine sector in the SUDOE region. Ensuring the long-term competitiveness of companies is the main objective. For this it is necessary to take the turn of the new demand for wines considered more clean on the sanitary and environmental aspect. VINOVERT combines several research disciplines (Economics, Sociology, Agronomy, Oenology, Chemical Analysis) with companies (winegrowers, cooperatives, trade, oenological suppliers) and institutions (interprofessional organizations, designation of origin organizations) directly involved in operational measures and their diffusion. The approach aims to develop solutions that demonstrate their effectiveness and their real capacity to implement socially and organizationally. Long-term solutions aiming to solve the environmental crisis of the sector (promotion of disease-resistant grape varieties), medium-term actions on the reduction of pesticides (conversion of farms and agro-oenological feasibility) and short-term solutions to reduce inputs at the stage of vinification (sulphites or allergens) will be analyzed and submitted to the arbitration of the consumers within the framework of experimental markets. The vine-to-glass continuum and the technico-economic viability of the solutions constitute the innovative aspect of the project, thanks to cost-benefit analyzes based on demand assessments in France, Spain and Portugal, taking into account arbitrations of organoleptic, environmental and sanitary quality. These analyzes will be extended to the fast growing markets of the North of the European Union (complementary study of the Swedish market). The heterogeneity of the regional (Atlantic and Mediterranean) agronomic characteristics and the consumer skills of the different countries will facilitate a comparative and replicable approach on a European scale. The regulatory frameworks of the devices will be analyzed and discussed: the legitimacy of resistant grape varieties, the implementation of agri-environmental measures and the labeling of oenological products.VINOVERT provides solutions to reorient the ways of wine production, based on the reduction of the use of pesticides and additives. For its development, the project has focused on the consequences of new behaviour in plots and on the development of innovations responding to the new demand of consumers. Experimental wines were made and product and sensory analyses were conducted to establish experimental markets in each of the participating countries. Likewise, socio-economic analyses were carried out to measure the importance of non-monetary incentives and modify the routine of farmers.
Among its results, VINOVERT has allowed:
- Making a state of the art of innovations of the resistant strains of the Sudoe area.
- Following up on organic and conventional plots to propose winemaking methods adapted to wines submitted to consumers.
- Proposing innovations for the reduction of sulphites.
- Demonstrating the possibilities of incitement by companies to facilitate the ecological transition of the vineyards.
- Demonstrating new consumer demands.
- Demonstrating the localized agronomic impacts of new modes of production linked to environmental impositions.
- Demonstrating the effect of competition between organic and healthy wines (without added sulphites).
Thus, VINOVERT has responded to the problem of the agro-ecological transition of viticulture, working on specific and localized cases. It has shown that the use of pesticides in viticulture is linked primarily to a real difficulty in modifying the behaviour of winegrowers and not economic reasons. Likewise, the project has contributed to new legislative proposals of the European Commission, on one hand to allow the use of hybrid varieties for the production of wines and on the other hand, to nullify the prohibition of cultivating six varieties for the production of wine and to increase genetic diversity. All these results have been reflected in a White Paper of which 3,000 copies were distributed.Experimental market for vines produced from resistant vine; White book on resistant varieties