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Burgundy producers get another slap in the face – this time from their own government.
Winemakers have reacted with horror to a French government plan that would see millions of gallons of precious Burgundy turned into hand sanitizer, the second blow they have received this week.
According to French news agency AFP, Burgundy winemakers gave a thumbs down this week to a government package of financial relief for lost sales from the 25 percent tariff imposed by US President Donald Trump. The tariff was imposed last October after Washington won a long-running battle at the World Trade Organization over state subsidies to European aircraft manufacturer Airbus.
The move took a heavy toll, with US imports of French wine dropping nearly half almost immediately, and Burgundy producers were especially hard hit, AFP reported.
"We're not happy," said Thiebault Huber, president of the federation of official Burgundy appellations after France's finance minister, Bruno Le Maire announced a raft of measures to help winemakers reeling from the double blow of tariffs and the Covid-19 pandemic. On Tuesday, the BIVB announced that sales could fall by as much as half thanks to the restrictions around restaurants and bars caused by the pandemic.
Earlier this week, Le Maire announced that payroll taxes and other business charges would be waived for French winemakers hit by lost sales to the huge American market. The government also said it would also let producers distill up to two million hectoliters (equivalent to nearly 1.7 million barrels) of their excess stock into ethanol – which can be used to make sanitising hand gel during the coronavirus crisis. The government will buy the ethanol at a guaranteed price, for a total of €140 million ($150m).
But unlike many other winemakers in France, Burgundy producers generally have little trouble selling as much of their prized whites and reds as they can make – and, in some cases, can pretty much name their price. Burgundy produces the most expensive wines on earth, with some topping $20,000 a bottle.
They also have some of the biggest overseas sales – around half of all Burgundy wine is exported, and the US is the biggest buyer, with 20 percent of the total.
The government offer valued the distillable wine wine at just €70 per hectoliter, or 70 cents a liter. Given the average price for even the most basic Bourgogne Rouge currently sits at $28 a bottle on average, the producers' objections are understandable.
"We're not interested in distillation," said Huber, adding that he was "furious".
Louis-Fabrice Latour, head of the growers' professional body the BIVB, agreed.
"We don't have any excess production in Burgundy. We only have two years' worth of stocks, so we don't distill."
"What we want is help for our exports," he said, adding that Burgundy sales outside France had fallen 8.7 percent by value in the first quarter.
Trump targeted French along with British, German and Spanish wines with the tariff, and his administration later threatened whopping 100 percent tariffs on all European wine imports.
French wine associations last week had urged the government to unblock €500m in aid, including a bigger emergency distillation plan for up to 3m hectolitres.
They have also denounced the apparent lack of progress on an EU compensation package of €250 million to help offset the Trump tariffs.
"We're putting billions of euros into Air France or Airbus, but we're not helping a sector in peril," Huber said.
勃艮第葡萄酒将变成洗手液？
勃艮第葡萄酒生产商对法国政府的一项计划感到震惊，该计划将使数百万加仑的珍贵勃艮第葡萄酒变成洗手液，这是他们近日受到的第二次打击。
据法新社报道，勃艮第葡萄酒生产商对政府因美国加征关税所致损失而给予的财政救济方案表示反对。2019年10月份，世贸组织认定欧洲对空客公司的补贴行为存在违规，美方随后以此为依据对包括葡萄酒在内的欧洲产品加征25%的关税。
报道称，此举给法国葡萄酒业带来了巨大的损失，美国进口的法国葡萄酒几乎立即下降了近一半，勃艮第生产商受到的打击尤为严重。
法国财政大臣Bruno Le Maire近期宣布推出一系列措施来帮助生产商摆脱关税和新冠疫情的双重打击，勃艮第法定产区联合会主席Tiebault Huber对此表示：“我们不高兴。”
勃艮第葡萄酒行业协会(BIVB)5月5日宣布，由于新冠肺炎大流行对餐厅和酒吧造成的限制，勃艮第葡萄酒销售额可能下降多达一半。