(BBC) - A mini-liberalisation of the French wine sector is raising fears among some traditional growers that their protected vintages will be lost in a sea of homogenised plonk.

Champagne producers are among the most vociferous opponents of a rule that comes into force on New Year's Day, and which should open up new French wine regions for the first time in nearly a century.

Like all rules governing EU agriculture, the new regulation comes from Brussels - but eight years of tough negotiations have removed some of its original bite.

The idea, when first announced in 2008, was for a more or less complete liberalisation of the sector. Anyone wanting to plant a vine and sell the resulting produce would be allowed to do so.

But such was the outrage - in France and elsewhere - about the damage this might do, the scope of the directive has been considerably reduced.

Still, in its way it does mark something of a revolution.

As of 1 January, the rules on planting new vines in the EU are changing in a fundamental way.

Up till now - in order to protect existing growers - the basic premise was that all new vineyards were prohibited, and special dispensation was required in order to plant.

Now the reverse applies. Now vine-planting is assumed to be legal - unless a good reason can be found to stop it.

Reputation

In France the change is accompanied by an agreement that any increase in the number of vines will be limited to 1% a year - that is around 8,000 hectares.

But, significantly, these new vines can be anywhere in the country. And they can be for the production of a new wine "appellation" or label - to be called VSIG (Vins sans Indication Geographique: Wines without Geographic Indication).