“We are at the very bottom”: angry winegrowers destroy shipments of wine from Spain

This Thursday, October 19, in the morning at the Boulou checkpoint (Eastern Pyrenees), a truck driver arriving from Spain watches helplessly as his cargo is destroyed. In just a few minutes, more than 240 hectoliters of rosé wine poured onto the roadway of the A9 motorway to the applause of the 300 Aude and Catalan winemakers present at the event. Kilometer-long traffic jams are already forming behind it. Minutes later, another shipment of more than 10,000 bottles of Spanish sparkling wine suffered the same fate.

The object of this wine rage? Imports that winegrowers are calling unfair competition at a time when they can no longer sell their stock. “The problem is the price,” explains Antoine, a 79-year-old winemaker from Ouveillan (Aude). The Spanish have minimal fees and have the right to put all the chemicals they want on their vines, while we have no right to anything.

“We’re at the bottom of the hole”

As a result, Spanish wine costs half as much as French wine. When their hectoliter costs 40 euros, ours costs almost 80 euros.” A situation that becomes unbearable in his eyes. This winegrower at the head of a private cellar in Corbières has the same feeling: “We no longer live, we are at the bottom of a pit. Most of our French wines are more expensive than Spanish ones. As a result, trade will be carried out from neighboring countries. Whereas operating conditions, growing conditions, costs have nothing to do with it…”

Returning from a meeting in the prefecture where discussions began, the leader of the Aude wine union, Frédéric Rouanet, promises that they will not stop there: “As soon as the holidays are over, we will continue to apply pressure,” he promises. “So much so that a major mobilization will have to be organized in Narbonne at the end of November.”