€1.99 per bottle at Aldi, €1.89 per bottle at Lidl and Leclerc, €1.66 per bottle at Carrefour – all consumer prices including taxes. As various French and international media report, such low corner prices for generic Bordeaux wines are currently driving wine producers in the south-west of France up the wall.
Unions demand higher prices
Recently, there have been protests against Négociant Castel Frères, with particular attention given to the involvement of union organizations such as Jeunes Agriculteurs de Gironde (JA) and Fédération nationale des syndicats d‘exploitants agricoles (FNSEA). Additionally, Confédération Paysanne de la Gironde, Coordination Rurale de la Gironde, and Collectif Viti 33 have also joined in denouncing the bargain prices. This collective protest, as quoted by the French portal Viti, states that these prices "do not take into account the economic, social, and ecological performance of the wine-producing companies." They argue that "a bottle of Bordeaux for under €3 does not remunerate the producer."
They demand compensation for producers based on production costs, which would inevitably lead to higher prices. This is supposed to be ensured by the existing Egalim law, which mandates automatic price adjustments in response to rising costs of agricultural commodities. Recently, for the first time, a winemaker successfully obtained compensation from two Négociants citing this law.
Falling sales put pressure on the trade
The trade in the Bordeaux region is under pressure as global sales decline, which has particularly severe consequences for the region. To counteract overproduction, state and European subsidies have been provided to uproot approximately 10% of the vineyard area in the region. Despite these measures, prices for generic Bordeaux red wines are declining, although they have not yet reached the level that would necessitate crisis distillation compensation of €075 per liter. VM
