Wine regions around the world, unite to face the challenges of the future

hat is your roadmap for your tenure as director of the OIV due to begin next January?

My vision for OIV is to grow and strengthen the organisation. I think it is an important institution for the wine industry because it is essential to have an intergovernmental organisation that allows all countries producing grapes that want to engage to be able to move forward based on their shared interests.

To allow OIV to grow, what are your membership targets for the next five years? Maybe the return of the United States?

I would like to extend OIV’s leadership. You may have seen the joint declaration by the French President Emmanuel Macron and the Chinese Prime Minister Xi Jinping on the possibility of China becoming a member of OIV. This is significant because China is a very important grape producing country. Ideally, it would be good to have the large producer countries at OIV, which includes the United States, but also Canada and Japan – a wine producing country and also a sizeable consumer market. We should try and engage with all these countries that have significant output.

Your PhD thesis focused on the differences between the French and New Zealand viticulture models. Is it still relevant to make distinctions between the New and Old Worlds when the Old World is inspired by the New and vice versa?

I think that in New Zealand, as the wine industry has developed, we have seen a move towards more specific regulations, through the creation of concepts such as geographical indications. Also, in Europe, there has been a gradual change in market organisation with a form of liberalisation up to a certain extent. There will always be differences – historical and legal – but fundamentally we share the same challenges. Integrity, authenticity etc.

So there is greater proximity than distance between wine regions around the world?

I think that in every country of the wine producing world we share the same integrity – wine is made exclusively from grapes. This is where the value of our products comes from. And we share the same wine culture, even when in New Zealand we have only been producing wine for 200 years. In my experience, everyone is more successful when we all stick together. There is competition between every wine region, but there is also a mutual interest in integrity and authenticity.

In 2024, you will be celebrating OIV’s 100th anniversary

Our annual congress will be held in Dijon in 2024. In Spain this June, France announced that a possible ministerial conference would be held concurrently with the congress. 2024 will be an international wine year for OIV, which will be working on its next strategic plan. OIV’s inception in 1924 was very innovative, we need to maintain our quest for innovation.