Bordeaux wine makers ordered to cut production
09/09/2005 - 21:05:40Bordeaux wine makers have been told to cut their output this year by an unprecedented 12% due to overproduction and falling prices.
The body that controls French winemaking said today the move was in in response to a growing surplus of French wine in a tough global market.
The Institut National des Appellations d’Origine instructed growers in most French wine-producing regions to reduce output for the 2005 grape harvest – but none by as much as Bordeaux.
Wine makers’ unions there had already suggested lowering output by 10% to cope with falling prices.
But Bordeaux makers were told to reduce output by about 12%, the institute said.
In the first quarter of 2005, exports of Bordeaux fell by 11.4% in volume and 17.9% in value.
Bordeaux wine makers, unlike those in other regions, were slow to participate in a campaign earlier this year financed by the European Union which attempted to deal with surplus wine stocks.
Wine makers were offered an EU-fixed price for wine sold to distillers, who in turn received a pledge from the EU to buy up the alcohol they produced.
At the end of August, the president of the Interprofessional Council of Bordeaux Wines, Christian Delpeuch, acknowledged the distillation programme had ”failed” in Bordeaux.
Grape harvesting for red grapes, used in the majority of Bordeaux wines, is due to start on September 14.
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