The French Government Is Offering Troubled Winemakers $215 Million Of Assistance By… Destroying Their Vines?

One of the worst vintages in France on record was 2021, when frosts plagued the French wine-growing region. A Burgundian vigneron monitors vines lit by candles to keep them warm. The French wine industry has faced mounting difficulties since the COVID-19 Pandemic, and the government is offering to destroy excess vines to bail troubled winemakers out. (Photo: Sipa via AP Images)

The French government is allocating the equivalent of $215 million to French winemakers to aid in the destruction of their grape vines. The unconventional solution was proposed as a form of aid to struggling vintners in the wake of a drop in demand, according to Friday’s article from Agence France-Presse in The Guardian.

French wine has taken more than its fair share of blows in the last few years. The COVID-19 pandemic, punitive tariffs from other countries and climate change are just a few of the setbacks French winemakers have faced. To make things even bleaker for those in the wine trade, demand for French wine has dropped in favor of beer and spirits, yielding a surplus.

In December, Bordeaux winemakers hit the streets and drove their tractors in protest because pricing for bulk wine had collapsed and the cost of land was too high, according to an Jane Anson Inside Bordeaux.

These increasing external pressures have made it harder than ever to be a winemaker in France — or what the French call a “vigneron.”

In an effort to ease the pain of smaller vintners, the French government offered funds to destroy the vines of these winemakers.

The funds were “aimed at stopping prices collapsing and so that winemakers can find sources of revenue again,” Agricultural Minister Marc Fesneau said, according to the Guardian. He also suggested these winemakers, “look to the future, think about consumer changes… and adapt.”

In a statement eerily similar to Ivanka Trump’s “Find Something New,” campaign that urged 18 million out-of-work Americans to switch things up during the 2020 pandemic, Fesneau effectively told winemakers to switch gears and stop making wine — as if it could be so simple.

According to InsideHook, the French government also provided monetary incentives for vignerons to assist with vine removal in Bordeaux and plant crops instead. The pressure, combined with limited government support, can have severe mental health ramifications on professionals working in a difficult and unpredictable field like growing vines.

In 2021, four high-profile French winemakers committed suicide within three months of one another: Dominique Belluard, Laurent Vaillé, Pascal Clairet and Oliver Lemasson, according to wine writer Simon J. Woolf. Due to the changing climate, difficult markets and minimal assistance from the government, it has been an extremely difficult time for French winemakers.

2021 was also known as one of the worst vintages in the country on record, due to terrible frosts decimating the majority of the grapes in vineyards.

According to CNN, the frosts devastated production in the Rhône Valley, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Provence and the Loire Valley.

“It’s a tragedy for the winegrowers who have been hit,” Christoph Chateau, director of communications at the Bordeaux Wine Council, told CNN.

With the latest developments on the horizon, the outlook remains a bit hazy as to whether the French vignerons will find relief soon.

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