Mexico, which joined the OIV in 2016, embarked upon a bill in 2017 for the development of its national vitivinicultural industry, which is expected to be adopted several weeks from now. It was at the time of introduction of this bill and during the OIV Director General's visit to the Mexican Senate that the Undersecretary of Agriculture announced his intention for his country to organise a presentation of Mexican wine in Paris.

First Mexican wine tasting at the OIV headquarters

It was with great pleasure that Jean-Marie Aurand welcomed this first tasting of Mexican wines at the OIV headquarters, highlighting the strong and rapid growth of the sector and the synergy between the Mexican professional and public sectors. Mr Guillermo Garza García, Director of PROMÉXICO, representing H.E. Mr Juan Manuel Gómez Robledo, Mexican Ambassador to France, was proud to be able to present, with the Mexican Wine Council, a selection representative of the high quality of Mexican wines.

A production of 260,000 tonnes of table grapes per year

With a production of 260,000 tonnes of table grapes per year, an increase of 25% since the year 2000 with more than 60% exported, Mexico is becoming a significant player on the world market. Its production is well rewarded as it arrives on the market out of season (May to July). As for raisins, since 2000, production has increased by 225% to reach 14,000 tonnes in 2015. Driven by strong domestic demand (an annual increase in consumption of 12% for the last 10 years), wine production has experienced remarkable growth. A large number of wine companies established in 11 Mexican states produce nearly 200,000 hectolitres of a wide variety of high-quality wine every year.

Three Mexican regions represented

Mr Gabriel Padilla, Director of the Mexican Wine Council, presented historical, geographical and economic data on the sector, and this data was illustrated by oenologists from wineries in the regions of Lower California (Monte Xanic), Coahuila (Casa Madero) and Aguascalientes (Vinícola Santa Elena). The wines were presented to 100 or so professionals, amongst different wine-tapas pairings illustrating the perfect marriage between wines of character and recognised gastronomy.

This event, the fifth of its kind, (the previous iterations having taken place in France, the USA and Germany) brought together 32 business from the country’s different viticultural areas.

On this occasion, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Gebran Bassil, highlighted the dynamism of the Lebanese vitiviniculture industry, with its high-quality wines which are exported around the world.

The Director General for Agriculture Louis Lahoud recalled the long history of Lebanese viticulture and emphasized the efforts made by the Lebanese government to promote their wines and support businesses within the industry.

In an ever more globalized world market where nearly 45% of wines consumed have crossed at least one border, common promotion makes more sense than ever, as Jean-Marie Aurand made clear in his speech.

Lebanon boasts 14,000 ha of vines across the country for an annual production of 80,000 hL, of which more than 20% is exported around the world.

The Gabrielle Dorziat theatre in Epernay (listed as a historical monument) hosted 38 official projections, selected out of 128 films from 19 countries in the competition. This year’s festival confirmed its international scope, giving awards to productions from Chile, China, Spain, the United States, France, Great Britain, Italy and Lebanon. Consult the list of award winners (link in French).

A travelling festival since its creation, at the invitation of the Champagne Committee and the Town of Epernay, Oenovideo celebrated hitting the quarter-century mark toasting with the bubbles so characteristic of the region.

At the same time as the festival, the 13^th Terroir d’Images exhibition (link in French) was presented in Reims (and is on until 13 July 2018) at the Maison Diocésaine Saint Sixte, under the theme of ‘Biodiversity from daybreak to moonrise in the vineyards and surroundings’ (Biodiversité : du jour naissant au clair de lune - Dans les vignes et alentours). Over 100 photos were selected out of 1500 photos from 15 countries in the competition. The Grand Prix winner will be revealed during the official awards ceremony, which will take place on Wednesday 17 October 2018 in the Palais du Luxembourg, in Paris.

Climate change and sustainability: a central theme for the films put forward

The OIV Press Officer, Daniela Costa, praised the quality of this year’s festival, marked by a common concern in all of the films presented: climate change and sustainability.

This is a priority issue for the OIV, as attested by the presence of ‘Promote sustainable vitiviniculture’ as one of the five strategic axes established for the OIV Strategic Plan 2015-2019. Additionally, in 2015 the OIV decided to restructure its working groups through the creation of a multidisciplinary, horizontal group – the ENVIRO Group – dedicated to the theme of ‘Sustainable development and climate change’.

Find out more about the work of the OIV on sustainable development and climate change:

• Moving towards a reduction in the limit on lead in wines within the Codex Alimentarius

• The OIV – partner of the 4 per 1000 initiative

• Wine and sustainability

A Brazilian has been elected as President of the International Organisation of Vine and Wine for the next three years, succeeding Monika Christmann.

Régina VANDERLINDE, a professor of biotechnology at the University of Caxias do Sul has been elected by the Member States of the OIV for a mandate of three years.

Holding a doctorate in biological sciences with a focus in enology-ampélologie from the ‘Université de Bordeaux’ she has been a member of the Brazilian delegation to the OIV she also served as the Scientific Secretary of the Sub-commission for Methods of Analysis.

She is happy that South American viticulture has been recognised by the community of the OIV and is pleased to be the third consecutive female President of the OIV.

Here's a short video where the new president expresses her thanks to the member states and her future goals at the OIV presidency (in French and subtitled in English):

At this General Assembly the Presidents of the scientific bodies were also elected:

Commission I Viticulture
Vittorino NOVELLO (Italy) suceeds à Benjamin BOIS (France)
Commission II Enology
Dominique TUSSEAU (France) suceeds Luigi MOIO (Italy)
Commission III Law and Economy
Dimitar ANDREEVSKI (Bulgaria) suceeds Tony BATTAGLENE (Australia)
Commission IV Safety and Health
Gheorghe ARPENTIN (Moldavia) suceeds Nuria GARCIA TEJEDOR (Spain)
Sub-commission Methods of Analysis
Markus HERDERICH (Australia) suceeds Ondrej MIKES (Czech Republic)
Sub-commission Non-fermented products, table grapes and raisins
Alejandro MARIANETTI (Argentina) suceeds Luis PERES DE SOUSA (Portugal)

2018 OIV Awards

Viticulture Award / EX ÆQUO

Vinifera, l’Italia dei Vitigni
Riccardo Cotarella

&

GUIDE PRATIQUE DE LA TAILLE GUYOT Prévenir les maladies du bois
Marco Simonit, Massimo Giudici,
Lorenzo Manfreda, Marco Ostan,
Riccardo Turata, Alessandro Zanutta

Special Mention

El Potencial Aromático de las Variedades de Vid Cultivadas en Galicia
Mar Vilanova De La Torre,
José Maria Marques Oliveira,
Ricardo Rivas Barros

Viticulture and Enology Award

Vines & Vinification
Sally Easton

2 Enology Award / EX ÆQUO

Vinařská Technologie
Josef Balík, Jan Stávek

&

Guides de bonnes pratiques d'hygiène - Filière vins
Coordinated by Aurélie Camponovo

Special Mention

Understanding Wine Chemistry
Andrew L. Waterhouse, Gavin L. Sacks,
David W. Jeffery

3 Economy Award

1) Wine Globalization : A New Comparative History
Kym Anderson, Vicente Pinilla

With

2) Global Wine Markets, 1860 to 2016 : a statistical compendium
Kym Anderson, Signe Nelgen, Vicente Pinilla

Special mention

Análisis de un sector : Rioja 4.0
Emilio Barco Royo

4 Fine Arts, Painting

LE VIN DES PEINTRES - Une histoire hédoniste de l’art (XVe-XXe siècle)
Jean Serroy

4 Fine Arts, Adults' Comics

Dans les coulisses du champagne
Scriptwriter: Maxe L'Hermenier
Drawer: Benoît Blary

4 Literature, Novel

Special Mention

Le testament de Virgile
Isabelle Chrétien

4 History and Literature

Special Mention EX ÆQUO

CHILEAN WINE An Illustrated History
EL VINO DE CHILE Una Historia Ilustrada
Rodrigo Alvarado Moore
Alejandro Hernández Muñoz
Illustrated by
Fabián Todorovic Karmelic

&

LES VINS DE BORDEAUX à l’épreuve de la Seconde Guerre mondiale 1938-1950

5 Wine and Health

L'ivresse du Soldat
Charles Ridel

6 Discovering and Presenting Wines

Granddad Tell me about Grapevines!
Pascale Bounet, Françoise Etourneaud

Special Mention EX ÆQUO

Australian Wine - Style and taste, people and places
Directed by Patrick Iland, with Peter Gago, Andrew Caillard, Peter Dry

&

Vous allez enfin vous y connaître en Vin
Sébastien Durand-Viel and David Cobbold, authors
Illustrations of Bertrand Hoquet

7 Wines and Territories

Wines of Japan - 日本 の ワ イ ン
Teiji Takahashi, Kimie Harada, Kazuhiko Kobayashi,
Hiroshi Saito

8 Wines and Gastronomy

Les accords mets-vins. Un art français
Directed by Jean-Robert Pitte

9 Monographs and Specialised Studies

Le Val de Loire, Terres de Chenin
Christian Asselin, author coordinator of the collective of nearly 100 contributors

Special mention EX ÆQUO

Champagne Vinet Och Odlarna
Britt Karlsson, Per Karlsson

&

Diversità dei vigneti della Svizzera italiana : stato attuale e prospettive
Valeria Trivellone, Marco Moretti

10 Symposia proceedings

Proceedings of the 16th Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference
Coordinated by Kate Beames,
Ella Robinson, Peter Dry, Dan Johnson

Winners of the 2018 OIV Awards presentation textes