Terra Vitis to include HVE certification in 2020

From 2020, producers who undergo certification under the Terra Vitis programme will automatically be granted the French government’s Haute Valeur Environnementale (HVE) Level 3 certification as well.

As reported by Vitisphere, Jean-Michel Baudet, the new president of the Terra Vitis association, said that the requirements for HVE were being integrated, “word for word, calculation by calculation, indicator by indicator into our specifications”.

It means that, from next year onwards, producers heading down the route towards more sustainable, organic and biodynamic viticulture will need to do just one round of certification, making the process less lengthy and less costly.

HVE was created by the French Ministry of Agriculture in 2011 for framers and vinegrowers and while certifications such as Terra Vitis often go above and beyond what is required by HVE’s highest level – level 3 – only those estates that had exactly followed the criteria for HVE 3 could be certified as such.

This resulted in wineries that had already been fully certified by one agency or another, having to undergo yet another round of inspection and certification to be recognised by the Ministry of Agriculture.

By incorporating the HVE specifications into its own, Terra Vitis will grant this final level automatically.