Chateau de Arras was home to 19 hectares of family vineyards, but now Marie-Caroline Rosier, pictured with sister Anne-Cécile, has decided to give up. Photo: CHATEAU DES ARRAS/FACEBOOK
Hail scars are still visible at the Chateau des Arras.
Holes the size of cricket balls leave jagged silhouettes at the top. floor-to-ceiling windows Nearby, a crumpled piece of tarpaulin covers part of the broken roof.
Such storms are not uncommon in this part of France, but the 2022 storm was particularly ferocious, hitting the family's vineyard and this 15th-century building.
“We have lost everything. Roof, windows. All the grapes were destroyed,” said owner Marie-Caroline Rosier.
But it's not just hail that's hitting Marie-Caroline's vineyard.
«Stupid» EU rules, overproduction and consumption cuts, increasingly «extreme» weather events linked to climate change and falling tariffs from China are all… bears fruit.
Ms Rozier will clear most of her vineyards to reduce wine production
Some winemakers like Marie-Caroline are uprooting old vines and planting alternative varieties, while many others have joined the recent tractor protests choking Europe.
After 10 years of managing the estate, Marie-Caroline says that she is tired». . Last year, her sister, who ran the estate with her, quit. And now she will do it too.
“After [the hail], I put all the numbers on my desk, tallied up all the costs and decided to stop,” she said from her office inside the 11-bedroom stone house. building. The scarf is wrapped tightly around her neck and she rubs her hands together to keep warm.
“We reached a point where we couldn't devote any more time to the business. We tried our best and basically destroyed ourselves.”
“When you work every day and every five minutes, you see your product being destroyed. Honestly, psychologically it’s very difficult,” she said.
The castle and its 19-hectare estate have survived four generations of the Rosier family. At one point he would have 10 employees; now it's just Marie-Caroline.
Chateau de Arras has belonged to the Rosier family for four generations. Photo: GEORGE STILLIS
Bordeaux is one of the largest wine producers. regions of France that are home to some of the most exclusive estates, whose vintage pieces can sell for thousands at auction.
It is here that the problems facing the industry are most evident.
Several hectares of one of Ms. Rozier's fields have already been cleared to make way for another crop, probably grains. She will keep just five hectares of vineyards to produce small batches of wine and for those Instagram-worthy shots when the space is rented out for events.
Many other estates face similar difficult choices.
According to the local farmers' association, in Bordeaux, one in three winemakers is experiencing financial difficulties.
The main reasons are an oversupply of wine and low prices, but the region's problems go back decades, when changing tastes and foreign competition began to shake Bordeaux's once impregnable position in the world.
Earning a reputation Expensive, heavy and old-fashioned, Bordeaux was losing drinkers newcomers such as Australia and Chile.
In the 1990s, China threw the industry a lifeline as it developed a taste for fine wines. In the 2000s, when Europe last experienced a wine glut, winemakers years later replanted the uprooted vines to continue supplying the Chinese.
In retrospect, it reflects the EU's «stupid system» under which winemakers are paid to export vines with no conditions to ensure they are not replanted, says Lydia Coudert, head of sales at Coudert Vineyard.
< p>The rude awakening came when Bordeaux wine consumption in China began to fall in 2017, and after Covid and the economic slowdown, demand plummeted. Although China is still the largest importer of Bordeaux, its imports fell by 54 percent in the five years to 2022.
The problem was also aggravated by the 25 percent tax on European goods introduced in the United States at that time. -President Donald Trump in 2019 and the disruption caused by Brexit.
Meanwhile, at home, the French have become more inclined towards beer or cocktails than wine. According to Christophe Chateau of the Bordeaux wine council, the average Frenchman now drinks 40 liters of wine a year (or about half a bottle of wine a week), compared with 150 liters in the 1950s.
As a result, winemakers across France say they are losing money and are either scaling back or closing, with many recently joining farmers in protest against high costs, taxes and EU red tape.
“Our strategy is now will be to produce less wine,” said Mr. Chateau.
To this end, the French government has allocated €200 million (£171 million) to all vineyards to destroy their wine and €57 million to Bordeaux vineyards to clear 9,500 hectares of vineyards. The Ministry of Agriculture also announced in early February the creation of an emergency fund of €80 million (£68 million) to help grape growers.
Unlike in the 2000s, recipients of the uprooting fund cannot replant vines .
p>
While this is reasonable, Ms Coudert said, compensation for uprooting has dropped from €10,000 per hectare to €6,000, despite the crisis being “much worse”.< /p>
Chateau Des Arras will retain some of its vines mainly for aesthetic reasons. Photo: CHATEAU DES ARRAS/FACEBOOK
Many winemakers say the government has become out of touch with them and doesn't realize that growing new crops such as olives or raising livestock without prior experience is a difficult and trouble-free endeavor. It's also unattractive, they say, to leave your land sitting idle for 20 years as another financing option.
Instead of ordering vineyards to destroy their businesses, the government should do a better job of promoting Bordeaux wines and their environmental successes over the years, said Ms. Coudert, who is clearing out 10 hectares on her estate and planting a mix of trees and other crops but is undecided with choice. what.
This opinion was supported by participants of Wine Paris-Vinexpo, the largest wine salon in France, which opened on Monday in the French capital.
“The global cake is getting smaller and market share is getting more expensive,” said chief organizer Rodolphe Lamaze. Innovation and upmarket transition are buzzwords, but “not everyone has the ability to do this or that,” he told AFP.
It’s not all doom and gloom; Champagne and Burgundy are still doing well, and premium and super-premium wines are not in decline, said Michel Chapoutier, president of the national union of vintners (UMVin).
“New generations are drinking drinks straight. from the fridge or sparkling wines,» he added. Low-alcohol or non-alcoholic wines are also gaining popularity, with 50 percent more exhibitors in this category than last year.
These are “entry-level wines, which have no buyers.»
Ms. Couder believes Bordeaux will experience a revival as the French move toward higher-quality wines. But it could take up to three years to clear stockpiles and adjust the market.
Many won't be able to wait that long.
“As farmers, you can suffer, suffer, suffer for a very long time, but at some point you will explode,” she said.
Свежие комментарии