Anger, fear and pestiferous infestations – it sounds like a pretty normal week in the wine world.
This week, winemakers in the south once again lose their rag – this time with low-priced wines in a budget supermarket.
A group of angry vignerons from the Young Farmers and FDSEA agricultural unions descended on the Lidl in the Bagnols-sur-Cèze in the Gard department (the town is on the opposite bank of the Rhône to the town Orange) on Monday. The group left anti-supermarket pamphlets and were photographed in the store before smashing numerous bottles of cut-price Côtes du Rhône (allegedly worth €1.39 but here priced at €1.99) in the parking lot outside.
“For a Côtes du Rhône producer to have a decent livelihood, they’ve got to sell their wine at a higher price than a coffee in a bar, or a bottle of Coke,” said the protestors. The head of the Côtes du Rhône winegrowers’ union, Damien Gilles, was also in attendance, slamming supermarkets for “not doing their bit”.
As for the supermarket, branch manager Tony Da Silva said that as long as the protest was non-violent “people have to be able to express themselves”.
Meanwhile, following the devastating floods in southern Spain, the ruling body of the Utiel-Requena region released a statement earlier this week, underlining its support for the region.
“We were very moved to see our winegrowers stepping up to help by going out with their tractors and pitching in to clean up streets, basements and houses,” said the statement. “Their solidarity and dedication are a reminder of the strong and generous spirit that characterizes our people, always ready to take care of each other when it is most needed.”
“We would also like to thank the expressions of support that we have received over the last few days,” it continued, “as well as the donations for the most affected areas, which have been channelled through to the appropriate institutions. To the wineries and winegrowers who have suffered damage, we want you to know that we are here to support you and we will be in touch through official channels.”
Here, though, are some of the other headlines from this week:
French wineries fear Trump tariff rerun
Winemakers in France are concerned a new Trump presidency could herald a return to trade tariffs, hitting an already struggling industry. Several reports, out this week, noted that French regions were “fearful” of a return of Trump’s wine “taxes” – tariffs that had been rolled back by the (now outgoing) Biden administration, nearly four years ago.
Bernard Farges, who then headed up the Bordeaux wine trade body, the CIVB, said he believed the tariffs (which were in place from 2019 to 2021) had cost the region around €100 million, as well as losses in market share. The Biden-era rollbacks on the import duties – 25 percent across French wines (still and sparkling) as well as Cognac and other spirits – are due to expire in 2026.
“Washington plays a major role in the health of Bordeaux’s vineyards,” said regional newspaper Sud-Ouest this week. “The United States, the most attractive market in the world for wine, remains the number two destination for [Bordeaux] wines, both in value and volume, after China. In twenty years, exports [to the US] have increased by almost 30 percent.”
Similar fears were being aired in the Loire – in particular in the Touraine.
“We are very worried,” winemaker and head of the Vouvray winegrowers’ union, Alain Le Capitaine, told La Nouvelle République. “Back then, we were already on the back foot but the taxes were brought in over a short period, in the middle of the Covid pandemic. We and our importer worked hard on the tarifs to try and keep the market.”
Last year, Vouvray sent 1.6 million bottles to the states, primarily to the east coast and Colorado markets. For the Loire as a whole, the US imports 8.2 million bottles of its wines annually. The US market is worth some €38 million to the region and is the Loire’s number two export destination, after Germany.
The Chinon appellation sends half a million bottles of its red wines to the country.
“[The US] represents a third of our export volumes,” said Jean-Martin Dutour, head of the Chinon appellation.
Over in the Mâconnais, Véronique Rémond of Domaine Gueugnon Remond, which sends 10 percent of its production to the US, told radio station BFMTV that Trump’s promise to add protective tariffs of between 10 and 20 percent on foreign goods had “raised a few questions” and would be concerning in the “very short term”.
Meanwhile in Armagnac, Olivier Goujon, the head of the region’s trade body, (the Bureau National Interprofessionnel de l’Armagnac, or BNIA) was worried.
“The US is our top market in volume and number two in value,” he said. “If, with these infamous trade tariffs, it got capricious again, it would be dramatic.”
A trade tariff would also be devastating to Cognac – a region already dealing with the ramifications of a Chinese tariff (see ) imposed earlier this year – reportedly as part of a trade dispute over the EU’s taxation of Chinese electric vehicles.
“Cognac would have a serious struggle to survive as its main [export] destinations are the US and China,” Jérôme Bauer, the president of the CNAOC (the National Confederation of Producers of Wines and Spirits of Grapes with Controlled Designations of Origin) told Radio France.
For many, however, potential tariffs – the US ranks as the number four destination for all French goods – are much more than just a commercial kick in the teeth
“Wine isn’t like a car or a battery,” said Dutour. “To tax it is to attack something that represents France.”
The winegrower, however, maintained a somewhat sanguine view of the potential tariff situation.
“Donald Trump is a danger to democracy more than he is a danger to wine,” he added.
Mateus caught in counterfeit scam
Famed Portuguese wine brand Mateus made headlines in Paraguay this week after a potentially fraudulent or “spoiled” wine bearing its name reportedly hospitalized one consumer, prompting national broadcaster ABC Color to question the country’s approach to import certification for foods and drinks.
According to ABC, the issue centers around interim go-aheads granted by the country’s supreme court to products without health certification. The Paraguayan Importers’ Center (CIP) said the risk to public health was “enourmous”.
“[…] once a product without a health guarantee enters the country, it can be sold country-wide, exposing consumers to health risks as the origin of the product is not known and could be counterfeit, the origin of smuggling, or from batches that were rejected in other countries,” it said.
Last week, 1000 cans of energy drinks, soft drinks and foods imported by the firm LA Business and sold in the country’s Fortis Mayorista supermarkets were taken off the shelves by the National Institute of Food and Nutrition (INAN) after it was found they did not have health certification.
This week, Mateus Group SA, which exclusively imports and distributes Mateus wines in Paraguay, confirmed products bearing the brand were being sold in Fortis Mayorista stores without certification and that consumers had already complained to the importer as the products were in “poor condition”.
Upon being contacted, the importer found the wine had come into the country via an unknown importer: Borgaro SA. Borgaro is, along with LA Business, one of a number of firms which, following LA Business’ lead, have requested the go-ahead to import products without certification.
“In other words, [the wine’s] origin is unknown, and it could be contraband, or even counterfeit,” said the newspaper.
For its part, Mateus Group has issued a warning to customers to be wary of products that do not have health certification, although there appears to be little consumers can do to identify such bottles, which include the Mateus rosé, blanco and Silk & Spice wines. Meanwhile, the company has contacted the INAN, which is investigating the issue.
ABC also contacted Fortis Mayorista stores.
“Fortis is a serious company that knows the origin of its products, purchases all products with an invoice, and whose products are registered with the National Institute of Food and Nutrition (INAN),” said Felipe Cogorno, one of the shareholders of the company.
ABC pointed out that this claim was unreliable given INAN’s recent raid on one of the stores. Indeed, Mateus Group confirm that only it had the licence to import and distribute Mateus wines in Paraguay.
“Flamethrower” leafhopper hits Provence
The Cotton Leafhopper (Jacobiasca lybica), known in France as the African Leafhopper, or Cicadelle Africaine, which has been ravaging vineyard plots across Portugal, Spain, Italy and Corsica, in some cases for several years now, has been identified in the Provence region of southern France.
According to French wine news website Vitisphere.com, the pest arrived on the mainland after four years spreading across Corsica. The publication dubbed the insect the “Flamethrower Leafhopper” due to affected vineyards reportedly looking like a flamethrower has been run through the rows.
A “major colony” was initially spotted on the “Côte Vermeille” (the coastal Roussillon region near the border with Spain) in September. Back then, one of the representatives of the Pyrénées-Orientales chamber of agriculture said that, “in the affected Paulilles region [between Port Vendres and Banyuls town], there were five leafhoppers under every leaf”.
This week, it emerged the leafhopper had been identified in the coastal towns of Bormes-les-Mimosas and La Londe-les-Maures, midway between St-Tropez and Toulon.
The leafhopper is problematic primarily because it is indistinguishable by the naked eye from the common Green Leafhopper (Empoasca vitis) which, although a pest, is not as destructive as its African cousin. Furthermore, according to some reports, the Cotton Leafhopper requires potent pesticides if control in that manner is required.
According to reports, Sivanto (the brand name for Flupyradifurone – a systemic pesticide, similar in function to a neonicotinoid in that its use is potentially harmful to other insects which browse on the treated plant) is one of the more effective chemicals against the pest. Sivanto was banned in France 2019 and, despite being nominally overruled three years later, remains banned through a separate decree.
The leafhopper is not unknown in the Mediterranean, with its presence in vineyards in Italy, Greece and Turkey in some instances noted as far back as the 1960s.
Côte d’Ivoire tops African wine imports
The Ivory Coast has overtaken South Africa to become the continent’s top wine importer, according to figures from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). African news agency Ecofin said wine had become “increasingly popular” for the country’s rising middle-class and upper-income groups.
“Benefiting from steady economic growth since the end of the civil war in 2011 and a thriving hospitality and business tourism sector, demand for wine has soared,” said the news agency. This made the Côte d’Ivoire the “leading wine importer in sub-Saharan Africa”.
USDA figures show the country imported 72,000 tons of wine in 2023, worth $64 million – up 22 percent on the previous year. This puts the West African country above South Africa ($54 million), Namibia ($40 million) and Kenya ($23.9 million) in terms of import value.
Spain is the leading supplier of wine to the country, making up the vast majority of imported wine (88 percent), with France in second place. The latter is primarily focussed on higher-value wines, with Bordeaux a noted player on the scene.
The report said the wine distribution in the country was primarily through the on-premise sector, with the supermarket chain Société de Promotion de Supermarchés (Prosuma) the leading player via its wine store subsidiary, L’Oenophile. Around 80 percent of wine passes through wine stores with 20 percent sold in the hospitality sector (hotels, restaurants and bars).
Although the country’s burgeoning middle class is expected to keep demand high, inflation has put pressure on imports. Wine is also heavily taxed in the country – according to the USDA, 60-75 percent of a wine’s final price is made up of taxes (excise duty, VAT, import duty, and additional import tax).
Petrus thieves sentenced
Three childhood friends, each boasting an already hefty criminal record, were handed one-year jail sentences by the Libourne criminal court this week after a night-time escapade in late August (see “Petrus targeted in Pomerol theft” in Sex Assault Claim in Bordeaux) saw them steal six bottles of Pétrus and attempt to break in to Château Cheval Blanc.
According to a report in Sud-Ouest, on the evening of 29-30 August, the trio donned gloves and hooded coats and got into a car with a Swiss number plate (whose paperwork was also out-of-date) with the idea of hitting to two major Bordeaux wine estates, although it is not clear just how premeditated the heist was.
“We needed money, we left Bordeaux with the idea of stealing something but not with the intention of stealing wine,” said one. “It could have been gardening tools. We set off like three idiots.”
The three took the Libourne road and stopped at Cheval Blanc. The were scared off by a security guard, who notified the police.
Heading back, the trio stopped at Pomerol‘s Château Le Gay after they “saw a light”. Smashing the CCTV camera, the three broke in and stole six bottles of Petrus. They were apprehended by a gendarme soon afterwards.
Despite a number of outside factors (one had just become a father for the third time earlier in August, another was about to start a new job the next day, while the third was struggling to keep up with alimony payments) as well as an “apparently sincere desire to stop messing about”, the court came down hard on the trio.
Between them, the three had amassed 35 entries in their criminal records – one had only just ended a parole term the week before.
Savennières doyenne dies
Finally, Évelyne de Pontbriand, a major figure in the highly-regarded Savennières wine region of the Loire Valley, died this week, aged 73.
The head of the highly-regarded Domaine du Closel since 2001, de Pontbriand was co-president of the Savennières appellation and president of the Academie du Chenin.
“Local winegrowers are thunderstruck,” Virginie Joly, of neighboring Coulée de Serrant, told local newspaper Ouest France.
Prior to running the family domaine, based in the Château des Vaults, de Pontbriand taught French literature. A firm lover of nature, de Pontbriand was instrumental in moving the domaine into organic, and subsequently biodynamic, viticulture and winemaking.
