Grubbing Up: Overcoming Bordeaux’s Era of Surplus

by Gemma Hadley

Earlier this year the Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux (CIVB) announced a plan to tackle the department’s overproduction of wine.

According to the CIVB’s president, Allan Sichel, there are estimated to be approximately 500,000 hectolitres of excess wine every year, the equivalent of 60 million cases.

Yet while supplies surge, prices have plummeted. Many producers are left with no choice but to sell at ‘very low prices’ to generate cash flow. It’s economically onerous to produce wine, but they are completely desperate,’ says Sichel. Exasperated, thousands of vignerons took to the streets of Bordeaux in December last year to express their anger and frustration with the situation. ‘We are not in a crisis, we are at war’ exclaims Didier Cousiney, president of Viti 33, a union protecting winemakers and growers.

However, in March 2023, the CIVB struck a deal with the French government worth €57 million to address the root of the issue.

Based on the principle of ‘grubbing up’, the practice of uprooting vineyards to allow for the repurposing of land, the package aims to cut the oversupply of wine by reducing the region’s total area under vine. Arguing that digging up 10% of vineyards would help to ease excess production, the CIVB maintains that the deal ‘puts us in a position to pull out 9,500 hectares of vines in the department of Gironde.’

To date, no vines have been grubbed up under the programme, with the first phase of signing up to the scheme finishing on July 17. Requests have come in for pulling up 9,300 hectares of AOC Bordeaux vineyards. The first vines will be pulled up after the 2023 harvest, in Autumn of this year.

Contested payments
As part of the incentive, growers will receive €6,000 per hectare of grubbed-up vineyard land. This falls short of the €10,000 per hectare demanded by the organisation Viti 33, maintaining that ‘€6,000 is not enough’.

Cousiney explains that ‘you need €2,000 per hectare in uprooting costs alone. Then there are the social costs, taxes and paying suppliers. Even with the remaining €4,000, there will be nothing left.’

He goes on to predict that at least 15,000 hectares of vineyards need to be grubbed up across the region to make a difference.

But the issues extend beyond the Gironde. With around half a million working in France’s wine industry, Bernard Farges from the National Interprofessional Wine Commission fears ‘between 100,000 and 150,000 jobs will be threatened in the coming decade.’

According to the Gironde Chamber of Agriculture, one-third of the region’s producers are experiencing financial difficulty. Many expressed a desire to leave the industry, and with more than 30% of owners over the age of 60, we can expect this to increase. As the prospect of financial ruin looms, the burden can become too much for some. ‘Every day there is a suicide in agriculture’ informs Cousiney.

For winemakers wanting to retire, the government’s grubbing-up scheme may offer some consolation. Abandoning vineyards is illegal, and proprietors are bound by law to sell or uproot their vines. With the cost of grubbing up and depreciating land prices in areas such as Fronsac and the Médoc, the CIVB’s offer of €6,000 may prevent estates from falling further into debt.

Environmental benefits
In addition to assisting social sustainability by helping producers to stay afloat and provide jobs, grubbing up may also help to make the sector greener. Plans to repurpose neglected vineyard land include installing solar panel farms and planting more trees. ‘Grubbing up of vines in Gironde should not be seen as a step backwards, but rather as a way of preparing to win back the market”, points out France’s Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau.

Pulling up vineyards is also known to prevent the spread of the vine disease flavescence dorée. According to the Department of Environmental Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), ‘The flavescence dorée disease is one of the most destructive phytoplasma diseases of grapevine’ and can lead to major crop losses.

Structural issues
However, while uprooting vines may help to balance the books of Bordeaux’s surplus cellars, critics point out that it fails to confront the underlying cause. Domestic wine consumption has been falling since the end of the Second World War. Per capita consumption has decreased from 150 litres per year to 40 litres.

Bulk wine production has seen the biggest hit, with Bordeaux losing an average of €47 million per year. The losses are mirrored in French supermarkets, which have seen red wine sales fall by 15% in 2022, reports AFP News Agency. Sales of white and rosé were less severely affected, dropping between 3% to 4%.

Attempts to offset the decline in homegrown demand paint a contrasting picture. With a portfolio of over 100 countries, Bordeaux’s fine wine exports continue to perform well, exceeding €349 million in 2021. Unfortunately, transactions are ‘much less for entry-level and mid-range wines, at €20 starting price and below’ notes Jean-Pierre Rousseau, CEO of négociant Diva.

Although the CIVB’s plan to grub up 9,500 hectares in the Gironde may help to avert future surpluses, many growers are concerned about the backlog of unsold bottles. This follows the government’s €160 million scheme to distil excess wine into industrial alcohol. While this may offer a brief sigh of relief, winemakers are still facing an era of financial uncertainty.

‘The problem today is not the price. The problem is there are no transactions,’ reveals Christophe Chateau, spokesperson for the CIVB, about the plummeting sales of value-level French wine.