French winemakers issue death threats

[Rebel Rose]

From Decanter:

In what may well be the precursor to the most violent period of its recent history, the Regional Committee for Viticultural Action (CRAV) told Sarkozy he had one month to honour his electoral promises of supporting the wine industry or 'the whole industry will be targeted'.

On a pre-recorded cassette delivered to TV channel France 3 on Wednesday evening, five balaclava-clad men – 'somewhere in the Languedoc hinterland', according to the report – read out a statement addressed to the new president.

Calling on all winemakers to join them, the activists referred to the 1907 winemakers' uprising in Montpellier, issuing a call to arms and intimating that lives may well be lost.

'Be worthy representatives of the 1907 revolt where several died so that future generations could live by their profession. See to it that our children know what it is to make wine,' they said.

The CRAV has been active in different guises since 1907 when began as the Comité du Salut Viticole. The organisation has resurfaced whenever Languedoc winemakers have had their livelihoods threatened.

Is anyone here a fan of the Languedoc?

[JohnL]

As always this is about money not wine.

"supporting the French wine industry" really means supporting with guaranteed money and price supports, a lot of people who really don't care much about producing fine wine. The truth is, many of the complaining farmers and wine makers are in deep trouble because they don't produce good quality wine that competes on an open market. The real problem for them is, no one (even the French) want to drink their wines.

[Busboy]

I went to the Languedoc last summer and, in preparation, tried to make my way through the local paper Midi Libre a few times a week. The crisis in the countryside was a continuing issue and protests, demonstrations and the occasional act of vandalism were common. Whatever you think of the wine (and most of it is plonk, though relatively tasty and cheap) there is a real feeling that a way of life is under fire -- much as, in the U.S., we're treated many stories of disappearing small farm/small town America.

The quality of the wine is not the only issue -- there is also the production cost and marketing budget advantages that large corporations in and out of France enjoy compared to France's rural cooperatives, while French wine consumption falls significantly. The locals are trying to respond by increasing quality, branding (Red Bicyclette wine is from the Languedoc and considered a major triumph over there) and cutting production, in addition to trying to hold their subsidies. Whether it will be enough remains to be seen.

[JohnL]

I don't disagree. However, what is equally interesting re: the disappearing way of life angle is the fact that "alonside" those same newspaper/media pieces about how small farms are disappearing are pieces celebrating farmer's markets and small artisinal producers who are growing and thriving everyday. Seems for all the gnashing of teeth about the deathof the family farm there are more kinds of locally produced cheeses and baby lettuces and...than ever before!

One can't have it both ways. I suspect that one's view of the scene --wine or farming depends upon the ox being gored.

The fact is --and the EU has acknowledged this--far too much insipid wine is being produced in Europe fostered by growers and wine makers (yes a lot of co-ops) that can not compete on the domestic market (wine consumption in France for eg is declining substantially) let alone on a world stage that has seen an explosion of wine making around the world.

It is also a fact that small(er) artisinal producers focusing on quality are growing in numbers and thriving (from the garagists in Bordeaux to small producers in the Languedoc and Spain and Italy etc) all over the world (France included).

If lackadaisical grape growing (over cropping for eg) and ,equally lackadaisical wine making by large co-ops churning out insipid mediocre (at best) wine for a shrinking or non existent market leading to dramatic oversupply supported by government subsidies (really, tax monies collected from people who are refusing to buy and drink these wines--talk about irony!) is a "way of life" then one wonders if maybe things need to change for the better!

As a reminder of how this issue is being used-- there are still a small group of folks living in Russia and Eastern Europe who long for the "good" old days and a long lost "way of life."

"Tradition" dies hard--especially when it is government funded!

The other way to look at this is rather than "tradition" dying how about life is evolving!?

By the way--I am seeing more really good wines from the Languedoc on retail shelves than ever before! Most of them from--small producers (some large as well). Something doesn't compute!

Edited May 24, 2007 by JohnL (log)

[Busboy]

I agree with most of what you're saying, including more good wines from Languedoc showing up on the shelves. But, whether you're talking local farmers bringing organic lettuce to my neighborhood market or sixth-generation small growers in Gard trying to improve quality, I don't think that the few who emerge in the new economy will balance the many forced out by change.

As a city kid -- whether looking at Iowa or Gard -- I vacillate between "screw 'em, they're just a bunch of backcountry welfare queens," and "jeez, this is pretty cool; what's a few bucks (or euros) to keep this place alive."

We'll see. And in the mean time, I think I'll knock back some local pork with a bracing Costieres de Nimes this weekend.

[JohnL]

Nice wine choice for that pork!!!

I would love to join you!!!!

I think rather than dying, both local farming and wine making are "evolving."

All over the world.

I always note that here in the US we are a large country geographically with a diverse and large (300 million) population. There is a real place for large agribusiness (they have been evolving and improving) and for local farms (also evolving).

We often forget that the wine the French are agonizing about is not wine we ever really see here. Their reality is that their per capita consumption of wine is declining. There is also more competition from wines made in other EU countries as well as imports from the New World. Life is changing! Not long ago there was no wine from South America or Australia to speak of. Look at how Spain and Italy have responded to changing times-- some wonderful interesting wines are "pouring" into this (and other) country.

Somehow I think we will all end up in better shape than before.

I do know that I can buy organic fine quality greens from California all year round as well as local stuff in season and I have more choices in things like pork than I did only a few years ago!

Just picking out a chicken is suddenly a matter of choosing among several organic, free range and mass produced birds.

Even a pessimist while unable to say life is good has to admit at least it is better!

Edited May 24, 2007 by JohnL (log)

[Vaughan]

There are some excellent Languedoc wines, and some even getting expensive, but I'm afraid I hold with the view that the "way of life" they want to return to is the one the French people are getting tired of, ie the government being responsible for everything and supporting, against all odds and rationale, people and industries that wouldnt survive in any other country in the world. This is partly a political statement (the far "right" in France would be the far far "left" in, eg, Britain) but it also just smacks of a group of people trying to hold onto being subsidized up the ying yang (economic term) when there's no reason for it.

Vaughan