The news hasn't sunk in yet. French wine amateurs seem still oblivious. All they have been talking about these past few days is the extraordinary prices reached by 2005 primeur Bordeaux wines: '€350 euros for a bottle of Lafite Rothschild. Since Robert Parker came three months ago and gave unprecedented marks, such as 99/100, prices have gone through the ceiling,' says Jean-Louis, un amoureux du Bordeaux, half-worried, half-ecstatic. When I ask him whether he has heard of Mariann Fischer Boel, the EU commissioner for agriculture, and her wine reform, he replies: 'No; should I know about it?' Well, he might want to have a look at it. Her recommendations, if implemented, could change the face of the European wine industry for ever. I doubt she has realised the import of what she has set in motion.

The EU faces an ever-growing surplus of wine and has reached its wits' end as to how to drain the overproduction. Recent trends show that Europeans are drinking less wine and when they do, they (mainly the British) increasingly opt for New World wine. As a result, French wines, the bulk of European production, have lost markets. So wine growers will be paid to rip up their vines. Brussels wants to see one-eighth of European vineyards dug up. It certainly reads like a sensible cure.

What does it mean phrased undiplomatically? First, it means adopting New World wine labelling, considered simpler, therefore more accessible to consumers. 'Simplified' means no more châteaux, no more domaines, no more appellation contrôlée, crus bourgeois, premiers crus etc, but one single etiquette, with names of grape, country and year. I tell Jean-Louis.

There's worse. 'Simplifying rules on wine-making practices' means allowing 'punching', a New World producers' habit which consists of adding sugar and wood to alter the taste and degree of alcohol in a wine. This practice is forbidden in France.

In Jonathan Nossiter's excellent documentary, Mondovino, we get a pretty good picture of what is at stake today in the wine industry. On one hand, New World winemakers produce simple wines, usually strong and fruity, the kind that make a very good first impression and almost immediately let you down. These 'dynamic New World producers' as our Danish commissioner calls them, have a voracious and aggressive marketing strategy to match their products.

On the other hand, Old World winemakers, in the business for generations, are producing wine for all tastes and budgets. Their products are fallible, therefore less reliable than New World wines, because they are made by individuals, not corporations.

Besides, Old World winemakers don't take the consumers for stupid children. They rely on them to make a little extra effort and find their way to more complex and rewarding wines. What the EU's agriculture commissioner has, perhaps unknowingly, triggered is a debate on the choice of a civilisation, no less.

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