Rioja adjusts growth limit for 2017 following new vine planting rules

By Jo Gilbert

Published: 24 November, 2016

The D.O.Ca. Rioja has increased the threshold of the surface area of vineyard planting allowed for next year to keep up with an increased rate of sales.

An upper limit of 645 hectares has been set for 2017 - an increase of 1% instead of the initial 0.6% set out for the three years to 2018.

This is due to a higher rate of sales growth, which has increased by 1.36% over the past twelve months.

The increase comes after Rioja's control board set out the original limits in a three-year plan last year to counteract the "threat" posed by a new vineyard planting authorisation system which came into effect in January 2016.

The new system aims to increase wine production to keep up with global demand by significantly relaxing rules to make it theoretically possible for anyone to get commercial vineyard planting rights.

The board said this de-regulation of existing planting rules pose the "risk of a significant devaluation of the D.O.Ca. Rioja".

In November 2015, the control board recommended a cap on the increase in productive potential of 387 hectares (0.6% of the region's 64,526 ha) for each year in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Provisions were put in place to potentially increase this in the last two years depending on sales performance.

The board agreed: "If YOY sales increase above 1% by 31 August 2016, the productive potential for the year 2017 will be increased by 1% instead of 0.6% ?i.e., 645 hectares."

Figures from the board for the period from September 2015 to August 2016 showed that registered Rioja wineries totalled 285.43 million litres of bottled approved wine in shipments, - an increase of 1.36% over the previous twelve months.

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