Boel, speaking in Germany, again attacked those in the industry who would prefer to keep a subsidy system for distilling wine that cannot sell.

"Is it a mark of faith in European wines when some voices call to keep anti-competitive support for distillation? Surely not," she said, arguing that the EU must recognise it contained some of the best wines in the world.

Formal proposals for reform of the EU wine sector, likely to include plans to grub-up 400,000 hectares of vines in order to drain the bloc's 1.5bn-litre 'wine lake', will be presented by the Commission on 4 July.

The date has already been put back six months because member states have failed to agree on what kind of reform is needed. Big wine countries, including France, Italy and Spain, fear the plans are too negative, with grubbing-up a much too central theme.

Boel stuck to her guns in Germany, echoing the way she approached radical reform of the EU sugar sector two years ago.

She re-iterated the Commission's plan to loosen planting rights, enabling competitive wineries to expand, and to bring European wine practices fully in line with those endorsed by the International Organisation of Wine and Vine.

But, aware of the mounting complaints at a grubbing-up scheme, she spoke of the need to compromise and stressed that winemakers would not be forced to rip out vines.

"No one will be forced out of business by Brussels," she told the German conference.

"On the other hand, some of our wine producers almost certainly will find that they cannot profitably stay in production, even if we make no changes to our wine regime. That raises the question of whether they leave the wine sector with nothing, or whether they leave with money in the bank to invest in other activities."

A compensation scheme for winemakers, similar to that offered to EU sugar cane farmers, will be drawn up by the Commission and thrashed out by member states.

That may do little to quell tension in some wine regions, however.

Languedoc Roussillon in southern France is set be one of the worst areas hit by wine reform, thanks to a long tail of small-scale producers who are already making a loss.

A wine militant group there, the Comite d'Action Viticole, last week attacked several supermarkets in the region's towns - in what appeared to be the re-start of a long-running campaign lamenting a lack of help from authorities and price cuts on wine.

See the BeverageDaily.com archives for more on EU wine reform and the French wine crisis, including stories on Languedoc's wine militants.