The Basque Government will give priority to small wineries and cooperatives in distillation

The Basque Government has already published the conditions for access to wine distillation with a final budget of 7.5 million euros, compared to the eight initially announced, and at a price of 92 cents per liter of red wine, compared to the 96 advanced.

The regulations have undergone slight adjustments with respect to what was previously communicated due to ministerial limitations in accordance with community law, which has reduced both the budget item and the price of a liter of red to which the Executive of Vitoria will not be able to apply the update of the Forecast CPI. Rosé, however, does have a considerable premium improvement, going from the 83.5 cents paid per liter last year to 91 cents for the current campaign.

By sections

The Basque Government will apply a distillation by sections of the companies’ production volume. Thus, the maximum volumes for distilling are increased to 100% of the production of wine covered by the DOCa Rioja and produced in the Basque autonomous community in 2023 for wineries with production of less than 250,000 liters and also for cooperatives. For the range between 250,000 and 500,000 liters of medium production, the percentage of distillable wine is reduced to the maximum 50% of the 2023 production, while for wineries with more than half a million liters of production the maximum is reduced to 20%. % of what they produced last year.

These percentages may be increased or decreased depending on the existence of funds or due to the budgetary inability to meet all distillation demands. In this case, a gradual increase/reduction of 5% is expected for wineries that produce less than 250,000 liters or cooperatives, 2.5% for those between 250,000 and 500,000 liters and 1% for those that exceed half a million. liters.

In the event that a winery has not produced wine in 2023, the annuity of its last produced harvest will be taken as a reference.

Last year, the Basque Country’s distillation order barely covered three million of the eight initially planned, although it is expected that in this campaign, when things have become even more complicated, it will be higher. The Government of La Rioja has not yet published the regulatory order, which is expected shortly.