A bloc of European ministers from several member states, including big wine producers France, Spain and Italy, provisionally agreed to the European Commission's plan to rip up 400,000 hectares of vines to drain the continent's 1.5-billion-litre wine lake, reports BeverageDaily.com.

The move came at an informal discussion of impending EU wine reform at the Council of EU Agriculture Ministers. No legislative proposal on reform is expected before January 2007.

The agreement in principle signals a growing acceptance among wine producing nations that something must be done to help EU wines, which have suffered from falling consumption in Europe, overproduction and rising competition from New World producers.

Still, the bloc of ministers, also including Germany and Austria, warned that ripping up vines was too negative to be the key part of EU wine reform.

More winemaker protests are likely as EU wine reform rises up the agenda. France's Languedoc Roussillon and Spain's La Mancha wine regions would be the worst hit by reforms, research by banking group Rabobank has found. Both areas already have the lowest income, €650, per hectare of vines, and are possible targets for any grubbing-up scheme.

Verdier has told French wine co-operatives they must either 'reform or die', but admitted many in Languedoc were "desperate". Wine is the region's third largest export product.

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