“Today, I am discouraged. When I moved to the family farm, after training in viticulture, I dreamed of doing away with the herd of cattle and only growing vines. Now I’m wondering if I’m going to uproot the 5 hectares of vines that I have left”says Fabienne Krier, who operates a vineyard and a herd of Aquitaine blondes in Bayas, in Gironde, a town of which she is mayor.
This question of the uprooting of vines, many Bordeaux winegrowers are asking themselves. Forced to make a difficult decision while part of this prestigious vineyard is going through an unprecedented crisis. “Twenty years ago, during the previous wine crisis, the price of a barrel of wine fell to 800 euros, but we were selling it. The merchants bought the wines that came out of the property. Today, the price is 650 to 700 euros, when our production cost is 1,200 or 1,400 euros, but no transaction is made. It’s going very, very badly.”says Didier Cousiney, based in Pian-sur-Garonne, before adding: “There are people who can no longer pay their employees. Before, service providers and suppliers played the game, set deadlines. Today, you have to pay rubies on the nail. »
Mr. Cousiney, already spokesperson for a group of winegrowers during the 2004 wine crisis, agreed to take over the megaphone almost a year ago, on behalf of the Viti33 collective, to alert on the tense financial situation many of his peers. The survey conducted by the Gironde Chamber of Agriculture, the results of which were published in December 2022, shows that 1,371 farmers declare themselves to be in economic difficulty. They represent 35,000 hectares of vines, mainly located in the Entre-deux-Mers, Côtes and Médoc regions. Naturally, this state of acute crisis does not concern the grands crus, immune in their luxury bubble.
A disaffection
To explain this situation, a number of reasons are cited. “Wine consumption has been falling in France, especially since 2018, and particularly affects reds. However, Bordeaux produces 85% of red”, recognizes Bernard Farges, vice-president of the Bordeaux Wine Interprofessional Council (CIVB). This disaffection, which is particularly noticeable in mass distribution, first affects the Bordeaux and Bordeaux-Supérieur appellations, which are very present on supermarket shelves and marketed at an average price of 6 euros a bottle. In 2022, these sales show a decline of 8% in volume and, cumulatively over ten years, the decline reaches 44%.
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