Yes, we are approaching the holiday, however news is still occurring.
© France Tourist|The vineyards of Bordeaux are getting smaller.
Like clockwork, we pull into December and it seems every European publication has a mulled wine dish or function.
The Champagne specials continue to do the rounds in the broadsheets and French paper Le Figaro ran an interview with outspoken health figure Dr Jean-Pierre Rifler on Wednesday in which he declared there was “no much better anti-depressant than a glass of wine” and (maybe less controversially) that “half a glass of red wine included the comparable antioxidant impact of 4 liters of tea”.
So the stage is set for another joyful season. And here are some more of the stories you might have missed today:
Bordeaux looking to grub-up 10 percent of vineyard
6 months on from his silence over the vine-pull plan mooted by his predecessor (see New Bordeaux Employer Quashes Vine-pull Scheme), the head of the Bordeaux red wine trade body (CIVB), Allan Sichel, has actually now relocated favor of grubbing-up vines in the region. Talking with regional newspaper Sud-Ouest, Sichel said “10 percent of the trade is doing terribly: 10 percent of production, 10 percent of the vineyards and 10 percent of vignerons remain in really severe problem”.
“This represents 500 winegrowers who are desperate and without hope,” he included.
Various aspects, he said, had actually contributed to the present crisis, including climate modification, existing worldwide financial troubles (inflation, dry goods costs and so on) and the bottom falling out of the Chinese market. In addition, 85 percent of the Bordeaux area is geared towards red white wine production– a sector in significant decline for French consumers themselves (see French Turn Their Backs on Wine from 2 weeks ago).
Expenses were rising while red wine prices were falling, he said.
“Growers are coming to the end of their career, they have no possibility of offering up; we’re even seeing complimentary occupant farming being deserted,” he included. “The vines are deserted. It’s remarkable– there’s total chaos.”
Sichel informed the publication that, presently, around 400 million liters of red wine was commercially offered, while indicating average production levels of in between 430 and 500 million liters. Sichel is requesting for financial assistance from the federal government to grub-up 10,000 hectares (just under 25,000 acres) of vineyard– the comparable, as pointed out by Sud Ouest, of the entire vineyard location of Bergerac.
Sichel is lending his weight to calls to the French government to subsidise the vine-pull, offered the cost of grubbing-up a vineyard is fairly steep. The previous rooting out relocation in the area in 2006 saw growers offered an aid of EUR15,000 per hectare to transform their holdings.
Present aid requests have been recommended in the area of EUR10,000 (or EUR100 million for the 10,000 hectares in question). However, the EU’s take on grubbing up has pivoted in the last 16 years.
“Uprooting without a reward is expensive (about EUR2000 per hectare) and a grpwer is not permitted to let their land go fallow,” Sichel discussed. “For those who are shutting up store, the bonus would work like a “national social strategy”– as the local president, Alain Rousset, said. For others, the benefit could help them to transform [their land to other use], for instance.
“However, since the reform of the [Common Agricultural Policy] in 2008, Europe no longer subsidizes the damage of the productive land and the help funds have actually been reallocated. The French State can not for that reason compensate Bordeaux winegrowers.”
In the meantime, a winegrowers’ protest is scheduled in the region for Tuesday 6 December, with regional vignerons requesting the guidelines to be altered– or a solution to be discovered– in order for the scheme to go ahead.
Sichel hopes the ripping-up of vineyards will make it possible for the staying winegrowers (and the wider region) to bounce back, be much better placed to weather the future markets and to re-balance production. Crémant de Bordeaux, he explained, is currently offering out.
Winery in difficulty for objectifying women
A Spanish white wine label illustrating the back of a woman in a swimwear has actually landed a Bierzo winery in hot water this week after Spain’s Instituto de las Mujeres (the Institute of Women– part of the country’s Ministry of Equality) wrote a letter straight to the manufacturers, calling the label offensive and saying the image “objectified women”.
The wine, dubbed Demasiado Corazón, is produced under the León title and made from Godello. It has been produced under the same label considering that 2009– among the arguments put forward by the winery (Bodegas Almazcara Majara) in its defence.
Declaring to Spanish online publication El Español that the label merely photos the “Mediterranean character” of the red wine, one of the winery owners, Javier Álvarez () claimed the photo was a masterpiece– a typical style throughout a number of the winery labels.
“It’s an entirely innocent image,” he added. “Anybody who sees something beyond that is someone who is truly sick and has a major problem.” For its part, the Institute of Women stated the, in revealing the lower back and butts of the woman, the winery dealt with females in a provocative (the word “vejatoria”, or vexatious, was used) way and as a sexual things. Additional “discriminatory mindsets” were likewise highlight, said the Institute via the Ministry of Equality.
The producers (and the bodega the wine is made in) have declined the request to pull the label, taking the “artistic expression” defence.
Sicily scores EUR5 million in nationwide funding
Over EUR5.2 million of funding from the Italian Department of Agriculture has actually been given to the Sicilian wine sector to help promote its wines in markets outside of the EU. According to the regional day-to-day Il Sicilia, the sum covers an overall of nine marketing tasks put forward by the region’s winegrowers.
“This is a move that has actually been much expected by the area’s whole white wine sector,” said Sicily’s Councilor for Agriculture, Luca Sammartino, “and we have actually unocked [the financing] in record time.”
The exact nature of the projects is anticipated to be released soon.
Bordeaux business blends wine and rum
Does the solution to Bordeaux’s present concerns lie with the likes of regional drinks firm Charles & & César? The self-labelled “creators of stylish red wines” (“Créateurs de vin tendance”) Charles and César Larraqué, who developed their eponymous firm 3 years ago, have actually launched a brand-new “BABV”, or “White Wine Based Drink”, combining Bordeaux white wine, spirits and fruit extracts for added scent.
Their Blanc Mixed drink integrates gewurztraminer, Rum and extract of lime while the Rosé Mixed drink blends rosé, Gin and grapefruit. Each is available in a standard Bordeaux-shaped bottle.
“Blanc Mixed Drink and Rosé Mixed drink have an alcohol content of 10 percent and have adopted a stylish and refined product packaging look, breaking the pattern of other products in the segment,” stated off-trade beverages publication Rayon Boissons earlier this week.
According to the publication, the BABVs retail at EUR3.95– a price unlikely to dig having a hard time Bordeaux wine makers out of a hole anytime soon.
Barrelmaker launches second-hand barrel platform
A barrelmaker in the western French Charente-Maritime department has actually a launched an online platform for second-hand barrels in a bid to open the marketplace. Tonnellerie Baron, based in the town of Saintes, simply west of Cognac, released the web platform, called Reoaked, at the Vinitech wine innovation beauty salon in Bordeaux this week.
According to new company AFP, the growing market for pre-owned barrels remains however “nontransparent”. Between 4 and five million barrels are made in France annually.
“We’re seeing, on a daily basis, clients having a hard time to get rid of utilized barrels or not understanding where to buy them from,” stated one of Reoaked’s co-founder, Lionel Kreff, at the launch.
“There remains in reality no rating for pre-owned barrels, the cost of which can differ in between EUR50 and EUR400– or far more for remarkable examples, depending on age, volume and former usage– compared to 800 euros for a brand-new barrel,” stated the report.
The platform will safeguard the anonymity of the barrel seller while ensuring the barrel complies with its marketed requirements. Further laboratory analysis of the barrel can be offered and each cask is marked with a QR code to make sure provenance and deter fraud.
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