The row about bottling wine at source rather than shipping in bulk has taken another turn. The Rioja producers have won a victory in the European Court of Justice which has ruled that all quality wine in Rioja must be bottled in the region. This has been condemned by the Wine and Spirit Association as a worrying precedent opposed to the ethos of the European single market. Director Quentin Rappaport said: "The same argument as applied by the ECJ will apply to all quality wines throughout the community and could eventually apply to vin de pays. "There are many producers outside the EU who would like to take control of the bottling of their wines. This would have serious economic implications, resulting in an extra cost of £130m on UK imports, an extra 55,000t of green continental glass bottles which cannot be recycled and another 5,000 tanker journeys on British roads. It would also be a great blow to UK wine bottlers whose plants could be forced to close." The WSA and its European counterparts are hoping to counter the argument that the quality of bulk shipments cannot be guaranteed by establishing a European wide code of practice which will monitor and guarantee shipments. {{DRINKS }}

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