Raise the price of wine or blood will flow.

French wine-growers go geurilla!

from BBC News:
A shadowy group in France has issued the French government with an unusual ultimatum: raise the price of wine or blood will flow.

The group's name is the Crav, which stands for nothing more threatening than the Union for Viticultural Action in the Languedoc region in the south.

The Crav's deadline to the government runs out this weekend, which marks exactly 100 years since wine-makers in the region led their last revolt.

That ended with the French army shooting dead six demonstrators.

Full BBC article

So how much can these people take before action is taken?

I live in the heart of the "Cognac" vines in the SW of France and hear all sorts of things on the "grapevine". (pun intended).

A few years ago, there was an all time record crop from most of the vines in France. Good weather was the cause. Lots of rain and lots of sun.

Now understand this, most growers work for themselves but have "quotas" they are allowed to sell to distillers and manufaturers of grape products. Wine, Pineau, Cognac and grape-juice being the main varieties here.

Once their quotas are met, they are refused, by law, to do anything with the remaining crop. In that record year, many vines were just "left", and no harvesting was done. How wasteful and frustrating is that!

Also, roadside stops were performed by the "douanes" (customs) to prevent illegal transfer of surplus crop to other destinations where things hadn't gone so well.

As far as prices go..it is possible to buy a bottle of reasonable wine here for as little as 1 euro, but restaurants here and shops abroad will sell the same bottle for many times that value. It's pure greed!

On the flip side, living here with vines on ALL FOUR sides of my house (not my vines), I am familiar with the routines involved with the upkeep of them and can honestly say that it is NOT a full time job in the 9-5 sense.

OK, they work hard when they do, and put up with hot sun and pouring rain, and there are many that do their own distilling to sell a private quota, but it's not all year round. There are some very wealthy "viniculters" here, new tractors, luxury cars and new houses show this.

Personally, I feel the government MUST act soon to sort out this problem, or like the title of this post says "blood will flow".

The French are passionate about some things, and "the grape" is one of them. This needs careful consideration and some "give" aswell as "take".

"Vive la France"

Not much interest here?

Don't blame me when you have to pay stupid money for a rank bottle of plonk then! :w:

I'd be interested if:

1) I could drink, which I can't for medical reasons and,

2) My state didn't have a thriving wine industry.

I did find it interesting that the farmers are only allowed to sell so much and no more. How do people make a living?

How do people make a living?

If you read the article, you will understand that the viniculters are complaining that they're not making enough money, that is why they are pi*#ed off! But they've had is good for so many years.

With competition from other countries, the French "ego" is taking a battering. Lower prices were inevitable.

Mind you, the French are sticklers for the 35 hour week. I'm not surprised about these problems really. Hopefully Mr Sarkozy will change that!

I'm English though, and have just done a 63 hour week and that includes a day off today to rest my back.

I must admit, I don't completely agree with their grumbling. They have plenty of time to do other work if they wanted to, but unemployment can be high in rural areas and traditionalist values come into play with this sort of issue.

Sorry you can't drink by the way, I'll have a glass for you eh :w:

It sounds to me like they need less government action not more. I think France produces more wine than the world market can bear right now, I've even heard of surplus wine in France being used to produce ethanol for fuel since they couldn't sell it for drinking.

Although I live in the U.S., it seems the average French wine is usually quite cheap compared to California wine. Still, it faces a lot of competition from relatively new wine sources such as Argentina, Chile, Australia, etc. that are also pretty cheap and good as well.

Another thing I read a while ago is that many customers are put off by French labeling customs and laws that differ from those from most other countries and what most people worldwide are now more familiar with. (France labels are primarily determined by region of origin rather than type of grape).

I think the only thing the government can do is to lessen its regulations to make its wines more competitive on the world market and allow the free market to work. Probably that will mean a lot farmers might lose their jobs, but no amount of blood they try to spill will repeal the laws of economics.