2023-05-29 16:49:00
Even if the winemaker has been able to weather many crises in the past, he is now facing an unprecedented situation, due to the consequences of Covid, the drop in consumption in France, inflation and global warming. Among the leaders of the sector, Ludovic Roux, regional president of the cooperative winegrowers gives us some leads. Interview.
How to anticipate drought?
By creating structures on a human scale by territory and with better water management, by sharing the resource with everyone. I am thinking of hill reservoirs that collect rainwater on a large scale. IPCC experts announce an equivalent but less well-distributed rainfall, with longer periods of drought. Do not dream: in the Aude, 10% of the vineyard is irrigated, we will never reach more than 20 to 30%.
Are the solutions multiple?
Yes, it’s complex, there is no radical solution, it’s a mix of several solutions: you have to work on adapting to climate change, and it starts with the variety and the rootstock. We look forward to being able to plant the Bouquet grape varieties, which are tolerant to cryptogamic diseases, behave well in times of drought, and are suitable for the market. We also need to change our farming methods.
Ludovic Roux presided over the general meeting of cooperative winegrowers in the Region in Nîmes on 25 May.
It doesn’t happen in a few years…
A vine is planted for 30 years! Changing grape varieties or rootstocks is a long term thing. The regional average vineyard changes at the rate of 4% per year. It takes time to renew it, no winegrower is strong enough to tear everything out and wait for the new ones to be profitable. Whereas cultural practice is instantaneous. Our profession must evolve.
The winemaker has been adapting for decades. Why more today than yesterday?
Because what is being asked of him is paradoxical! Faced with the dizzying increase in our costs, climate change and its constraints and the frequency of hazards, we are facing a drop in consumption in France. At the same time, we are being asked to reduce pesticides. However, producing what sells best, such as Chardonnay without treatment, is complicated, because this grape variety fears powdery mildew. The biggest difficulty is innovating and investing in research, whereas at present, commercialization does not bring us added value.
We are not in overproduction, we are under marketing!
Where are the requested compensations from?
But yes ! The public authorities must support us and the CAP must be reassessed. Inflation cuts our budgets. We are asking for public gestures on investment and research. It is not a waste of money, because otherwise, we are abandoning our territories to make way for others that are not very virtuous on the agro-environmental level.
In which direction are you working?
We are not in overproduction, we are under marketing! In a world market that is contracting slightly, the volumes of bulk traded leaving the borders do not stop increasing. The red is suffering but paradoxically, for export on very specific qualities we are not able to respond, we have to remedy this. The consumer is no longer the same: the basic red that went on the classic market, it’s over! You need very high quality red. At the same time, we have another advantage: our red grape varieties produce very good rosés, we are proud to be the first region in the world to produce rosé. We must affirm it and structure ourselves to continue this success story.
Is there a current problem with trading?
In times of crisis, the producer is never in a strong position! Among the traders, some behave badly and abuse, others are correct. Frédéric Rouanet is right, he says it loud and clear: underpaying for a product is unacceptable. You have to contract with the trade, if possible over the long term, and pay for quality, of course taste, but also environmental, with HVE qualification, and organic.
Lowering the price of organic is deadly
Winegrowers are downgrading organic to sell?
Unfortunately yes. Time is against them: they need cash and prefer to downgrade to conventional. What you shouldn’t do is lower the price of organic, it’s deadly.
What strategy do you encourage?
Do not produce, offer the wines and wait for the broker: we must reverse! We have to anticipate, be constantly in management to be able to produce while sticking to global expectations. In the past, we did not make a commercial act; today, wineries that don’t take the lead in finding markets won’t make it. The wine system, and this is historical and linked to the INAO, was built like this: we make a Corbières and we sell it. Now it’s over. The region must adapt to demand. We must ask ourselves the question: which wine do I make for which consumer? it takes tremendous teamwork.
Out of 4 proposals, only one has been accepted but without result to date
To date, four major industry proposals have been made, but only crisis distillation has been accepted, but it has still not been implemented.
The others are stalled:
– aid for storage which would have made it possible to provide cash while waiting for the release of the wine,
– deferred reconversion, which allows you to receive compensation for uprooting as soon as it is done, to commit to letting the land rest for five years and to receive the plantation bonus once it is done.
– aid for export, a common request pleaded with the Independent Winegrowers and the trade, but for the moment, there is no notable progress.
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