- The viticulture assistance plan was announced Monday evening by the government. It provides exemptions at 100% from social security contributions and employers' social charges as well as the opening of a crisis distillation of two million hectoliters of surplus wines at an average price of 70 euros per hectoliters.
- The state is going to put its hand in the pocket, up to 140 million euros, to destroy the equivalent of 250 million bottles and thus recover vats to house the wines of the 2020 vintage.
- In Gironde, nearly 700,000 hectoliters of wines of all colors and all vintages are expected to be burned. A first.
Hundreds of thousands of hectoliters of Bordeaux wines, of all colors and all vintages, transformed into biofuel. The executive announced Monday evening its plan to help viticulture. A national plan which provides exemptions at 100% of social security contributions and employers' social charges but also the opening of a crisis distillation. Two million hectoliters of surplus French wines, at an average price of 70 euros per hectoliters, are concerned. Clearly, the state will release 140 million euros to destroy the equivalent of 250 million bottles.
By the end of June, some of the nearly 6,000 Gironde winegrowers will have submitted a file so that the distilleries of the department, including those of Douence and the Coutras cooperative, will separate them from several hundred barrels and free the cellars for the cuvée. to come up. “In Gironde, between 500,000 and 700,000 hectoliters of wine should land in the distilleries. This amount is a first, but it is also the first time that so much wine from the cellars will go into distillation, the first time that we go out wearing masks, that the restaurants remain closed for so long ”, indicates Bernard Farges of the Interprofessional Council of Bordeaux wines (CIVB).
"We already know that 2 million hectoliters will not be enough"
"A new harvest will take place in four months and tanks 2020 are needed to house the 2020 vintage. The cellars are full and 85% of independent winegrowers show a 75% drop in their turnover, it is a disaster . And when we know that wine consumption across Europe could drop by 35% in volume this year due to the Covid-19, it's pretty good to be able to empty tanks at 70 cents per liter, the equivalent current prices for the AOC Bordeaux rouge, ”comments Cédric Coubris, president of the independent winegrowers of Gironde. The owner of Château la Mouline (in the Moulis appellation) specifies: “But the Bordeaux wine sector, it is five million volumes produced for four million sold. Logically, it is therefore a million hectoliters for distillation that we would need, in Gironde alone. This state plan is only a first draft, according to Bernard Farges. A hook that should hook the most suffering winegrowers. "Those also who have a problem of stock management, cash flow, wines that spoil faster", specifies the one who is, moreover, president of the national confederation of producers of wines and wine spirits at AOC (Cnaoc). We already know that Pauillac, Margaux, Saint-Emilion or Saint-Julien will not take the path of the distillery. Just like the Burgundy wines which sell for well over 750 euros per barrel, fixed by this aid plan.
Coronavirus: In Bordeaux, "we are in the dark" ... The wine market suspended at the end of the epidemic https://t.co/gXiwDgvm78 via @ 20minutesBord pic.twitter.com/H0RMlcYVeo
- 20minutesbordeaux (@ 20minutesbord) March 10, 2020“Distillation is not for us. In Burgundy, there is no overproduction. We only have two years in stock. So we do not distill, "says Louis-Fabrice Latour, president of the Interprofessional Bureau of Burgundy Wines (BIVB). It is therefore the entry-level Bordeaux wines (like those of Loire, Gascogne or Alsace) which should soon be found in the tanks of cars or industrial products for chemistry or pharmacy. Even be transformed into hydroalcoholic gel.
Find a breath in the distillation
So how is it going to happen? "The wine withdrawn from the market will go to the boiler so that the alcohol is recovered, on the same principle as that of spirits", details Cédric Coubris. It will then be up to the distilleries, which generally recover the volumes by exceeding or the ultra-polluting lees (grape marc), to decide to turn to biofuel or hydroalcoholic gel. “In Gironde, we will rather be on biofuel, even if, there again, it is a product which does not sell much. The distilleries will surely have to be supported financially to be able to stock this exceptional production. But, we are on another problem ”, suggests Bernard Farges. The winemakers will then have to declare to customs the volumes released for "industrial use".
Manhandled by Trump taxes, the fall in exports to China, the loss of speed of red wine in favor of rosé, the closure of the usual CHR network (wine merchant, hotel and restaurant) or confinement (RIP parties with friends) ), the winemakers should find a breath in the distillation.
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And Bernard Farges already knows that these two million liters will not be enough to put the tanks afloat: “We will be brought to see the Minister [of the Economy] Bruno Le Maire. We will have an extension in terms of volumes, it is impossible otherwise. The French wine industry had asked for distillations of 3 million hectoliters and even that, it may not be enough. The longer the crisis lasts, the more restaurants are closed and the less wine is consumed. But these cellars will have to be emptied. "
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