EU vintners sour over sugar ban.

Many vintners are outraged over an EU proposal to ban crystal sugar from European wines and end subsidies for the concentrated juice, a move they say could put them out of business. The Associated Press reports that the 27-nation EU is struggling with a wholesale reform of its bloated wine sector burdened with overproduction, excess subsidies and increasing competition. For the European Commission, the problem with sugar and subsidized juice is simple: It spurs overproduction and saps the budget. Producers around Stuttgart, Germany, say their wines easily find all the drinkers they need and should not be penalized for overproduction elsewhere.

EU Farm Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel says that if EU policies continue unchecked, excess wine production would reach 15 percent of output by 2010. Even now, the EU spends $700 million of its $1.9 billion wine budget to get rid of unwanted wine.

Her assault on boosting sugar levels in wine to increase alcohol--a practice called capitalization--promises to make this year's two remaining EU farm ministers meetings stormy.