5.

Having clarified those points, I now turn to the question submitted by the national court. As I recalled in paragraph 2, the Oberstes Landesgericht wishes to ascertain whether, for the purposes of Article 36, the increase in the alcoholic strength of grape must in fermentation may take place only in the zone in which the grapes are harvested, even if such must is not intended to be turned into wine but is intended for sale in that state as ‘Federweisser’. In the first place I propose to consider the territorial or geographical aspect of the problem. In the light of the conditions and the limits laid down by Regulation No 337/79, it seems clear in my view that the increase in natural alcoholic strength may, in itself, take place only in the zones in which the grapes have been harvested. The reasoning behind that principle is selfevident. The Community legislature considered that ‘in certain years it may be necessary to permit the enrichment of products suitable for yielding table wine;... however, it is important, in the interests alike of the quality and of the market, that such enrichment be subject to certain conditions and limits and that it be applied only to produce of certain vine varieties and of a minimum potential natural alcoholic strength; [moreover], since production conditions vary considerably between one... zone of the Community and another ..., it is essential that account be taken of such variations, in particular in respect of enrichment procedures’ (see the 21st recital in the preamble). In other words, protection is afforded to grapes which, whilst being naturally suitable for yielding table wine, need ‘a top-up of alcohol’ in difficult years. Article 32 accurately implements those proposals. It provides that the products referred to in the first subparagraph (fresh grapes, must and so on) may not be subjected to an increase in alcoholic strength unless their minimum natural alcoholic strength is of a certain level: 5% vol. in zone A (Federal Republic of Germany) and 8.5% vol. in zone C II (Italy). The third subparagraph adds that the increase in those minimum percentages may not exceed 3.5% in zone A and 2% in zone C. However, Article 33 (6) provides that ‘in no case shall the [enrichment] processes have the effect of raising to more than 11.5% vol. in ... zone A, ... the total alcoholic strength by volume’ of the products in question (emphasis added). Hence it is clear that, in order to adhere to that maximum percentage, enrichment must take place exclusively in the zone in which the grapes are harvested. If, for instance, a German wine grower imported into Germany Italian grape must with a minimum alcoholic strength of 8.5% vol. and intended to enrich it in his wine cellars by the addition of must concentrate, it would be possible for him, on the basis of the percentage increases provided for zone A (3.5% vol.) to raise the alcoholic strength to 12% vol., thereby exceeding the maximum percentage permitted by Article 33 (6), which — as the Court is aware — is 11.5% vol. in the case of Germany. The converse situation, that is to say where an Italian wine grower wished to increase the alcoholic strength of must imported from Germany, would lead to an even more disconcerting result. On the basis of the percentages laid down by Article 32 for Italy (5% vol. in respect of minimum alcoholic strength and 2% vol. in respect of the increase), the operation would serve no purpose since the must would not even attain the minimum alcoholic strength, which, for zone C II, is 8.5% vol. Hence the finding on which I have based my argument, namely that enrichment is possible only in the zone in which the grapes have been harvested, stems primarily from a mathematical calculation rather than common sense. Nor is that finding invalidated by the objection that the aforesaid quantitative limits are inoperative where must in fermentation is not intended to be turned into table wine. Such an objection would disregard the difference between the conditions governing enrichment (which are laid down by Articles 32 and 33) and the conditions for the grant of authorization to carry out the operations designed to increase the alcoholic strength (which are instead laid down by Article 36). Even on the assumption that authorization may be dispensed with in certain cases, anyone wishing to enrich the must obtained from certain vine varieties must in any event comply with the (quantitative and geographical) conditions laid down for that purpose by Articles 32 and 33.