It’s a busy week for wine generally, but an even busier one for the French courts.
© Chatham172 / Shutterstock | Beaujolais and white wine lovers could be in for a treat.
Gosh, there’s been a lot of wine news this week.
Beaujolais lovers will be delighted to learn that top producer Foillard is set to release its first white wine (produced from a leased, 1.4 hectare Chardonnay vineyard in Pizay, Saint-Jean-d’Ardières, just west of Morgon). According to La Revue du Vin de France, 12,000 bottles of the white – made with a three-day, whole-berry cold-soak prior to pressing – were produced from the 2023 vintage. Expect a clamor from natural wine lovers.
Meanwhile, a deputy for the left-wing La France Insoumise party was derided in France’s National Assembly last Friday for comparing wine production to that of cannabis.
“Wine is a terroir, it’s farmers, it’s a culture,” said Antoine Léaument. “No one denies it. But it seems like cannabis is produced industrially. Sorry, but that’s also agriculture.
He continued despite jeers from the opposition.
“Why are you laughing?” He went on “It’s funny because depending on the plant in question, you either get riled up or you don’t. They both produce the same effect. Alcohol is a drug that 90 percent of French people have already used. Alcohol is a drug that kills 45,000 people a year. Alcohol is a drug that has a social cost of €100 billion a year.”
It’s also been a busy week in the French courts.
Supermarket protestor in court for vandalism
A Bordeaux winegrower was up in a Libourne court this week charged with damaging bottles as part of a protest in a number of local supermarkets which took place last year.
Théo Hernandez, the deputy general secretary of local agricultural union Young Farmers of Gironde and Nouvelle-Aquitaine, is being sued by the Leclerc store in Saint-Magne-de-Castillon and the Lidl stores in Arveyres, Libourne and Castillon-la-Bataille after 18,000 bottles of wine under €3 were defaced with a marker pen as part of the protests. Hernandez was acting as part of a group of union protesters airing their grievances over low-priced wines on supermarket shelves.
Some labels had a sad face hastily daubed on them, while others had their barcodes drawn over and others were over-labeled, leading, the supermarkets claim, to lost revenue. Leclerc is demanding €3000 and Lidl €15,000 in damages.
French wine news website Vitisphere, however, was not hesitant in showing where its sympathies lay.
“The absence of [the supermarket] lawyers made it impossible to get their version of the facts,” said the publication on Wednesday. In a previous story, the publication said the protests, which occurred in March 2024, took place in “a rather good-natured atmosphere, with many talks between demonstrators and representatives of the supermarkets (store managers, department managers, etc.)”.
For his part, Hernandez does not deny that he defaced a number of bottles but claims this did not prevent their sale. Indeed, he argues that Lidl employees returned the defaced bottles to the shelves.
Furthermore, there are numerous additional nuances to the case. While it appears that only the public prosecutor was in attendance for the claimants, the prosecution has admitted it would have accepted a plea deal – something Hernandez has declined, wishing the case to be given greater prominence in public debate.
Additionally, it is reportedly clear from video surveillance footage that Hernandez was not alone in defacing the bottles in the stores – a fact recognized by all sides. Although Hernandez has refused to name his colleagues, his lawyer is arguing that, given the prosecution “could have identified the persons had they so wished”, the case is more political – Hernandez’s plight is being used as a deterrent or intimidation – than it should be, further intimating that the public prosecutor is siding with Goliath over David.
“The prosecution has decided to make an example of a trade unionist, a courageous person who is fighting peacefully to be able to live from his work,” said his lawyer.
The hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, April 9.
Winemaker jailed for illegal additions
A now-retired winemaker in the Loire region of western France has been handed a one-year suspended prison sentence for illegally chaptalizing and adding tartaric acid to over 230,000 liters of wine over a two-year period.
According to local newspaper Ouest-France, the unnamed winemaker based in Mauges-sur-Loire, just west of the Anjou appellation, was found to have adulterated at least half of his wine production over a two-year period from 2017-2018.
At that time, the addition of tartaric acid (to increase the acidity in a wine) was illegal in the region with the investigation finding the winemaker purchased 500kg of the additive. It is understood he also purchased nearly 100 tons of sugar but only officially declared 10 tons of it.
Although the winemaker was found guilty in an Anjou court of breach of trust, forgery, use of forged documents, and adulteration of production, four other charges were dismissed. Indeed, reports indicate that some of the procedures carried out by regional labor bureau and the police as part of their investigations had fallen outside of the legal framework, leading some of their findings inadmissible in court.
Nonetheless, the evidence was enough to secure a conviction. The winemaker has also been banned from running a company for 10 years.
In many countries, the use of both additives in the same wine (sugar increases alcohol and body – often used in cooler climates; while acid additions are associated with warmer regions) is proscribed as it generally considered counter-intuitive to the craft of winemaking.
Mexico gets first IGP title
The Mexican wine region of Querétaro has become the country’s first official geographical denomination (IGP) for wine. Officially dubbed IGP Vinos de la Región Vitivinícola de Querétaro, the region spans 18 municipalities of the eponymous administrative state, located just north of Mexico City in the center of the country.
“It is the southernmost winegrowing region in the Northern Hemisphere,” said Mexico’s El Economista newspaper this week, “and is known as an area of extreme viticulture, with risks of hail and summer rains that cause a night-time drop in temperature.”
The region boasts 550 hectares (1360 acres) under vine with the majority of the region’s vineyards (18 in total) found in the Tequisquiapan municipality. The other vineyard areas in the region are El Marqués (13 vineyards), Ezequiel Montes (12), San Juan del Río (9), Colón (9), Huimilpan (6), Cadereyta de Montes (2) and Pedro Escobedo (1).
The Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) – a branch of the country’s Ministry of Economy – formally granted the IGP title on 10 March 2025. This was ratified on 24 March with the publication of the title in the country’s Official Gazette.
Muscat de Frontignan sees red
The head of the winemaking group that oversees production in the southern French wine region of Muscat de Frontignan is looking to expand the appellation to cover the red muscats grown and produced in the region.
Although wine production under the title is overwhelming geared towards wines produced from the Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains variety, its red mutation – known, unsurprisingly, as Muscat Rouge à Petits Grains – is increasingly being found in vineyards across the region.
Local producers are hoping the French appellations organisation, the INAO, will allow the appellation regulations to be modified to allow for the red grape and its wines to be produced as a Muscat Rouge de Frontignan.
Thibaut Rubio, the head of the region’s official winemaking body, told local newspaper Midi Libre, the move was due to ‘commercial results”.
“We often end up running out of stock because we can’t supply enough,” he said. “That’s more or less what we put forward to the INAO. The industry reckons it can easily sell 30,000 bottles or more of Muscat Rouge [annually].”
Current production of the standard, white, Muscat de Frontignan (a vin doux naturel, whose fermentation is stopped by the addition of spirit, producing an aromatic, sweet white wine) sits at around 1.5 million bottles annually. White wines, produced from Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains are currently the only product allowed under the Muscat de Frontignan title.
The region’s winemakers are also hoping the INAO will allow production specifications to be altered to allow irrigation in the region.
Gaillac to increase local varieties
Their winemaking counterparts in the Gaillac region of South West France are also hoping that France’s INAO appellation body will rubber-stamp their request to increase the level of local grape varieties in the region’s white wines.
Winemakers in Gaillac are hoping to up the minimum level of Mauzac, Loin de l’Oeil (also known as “Len de l’El”) and/or Muscadelle in Gaillac blanc to 70 percent. The trio – known as the region’s “principal varieties” – currently have a minimum level of 50 percent.
According to French wine news website Vitisphere, however, discussions have not been without controversy as the changes – ostensibly tabled to give greater prominence to local varieties – have in some instances had the opposite effect. Muscadelle, for example, is not considered a local variety.
Furthermore, the increased presence of the trio has led to a reduction in the blend (to 30 percent) of the so-called “accessory varieties”, Sauvignon Blanc and Ondenc. While reductions in the former are consistent with the proposals, the latter is clearly a local variety.
“But we’ve only got 10 hectares across the region,” said Cédric Carcenac, president of the local wine trade body. “But we’ll review it in 10 years’ time.”
The move follows a similar increase in the proportion of local red varieties in Gaillac wines approved a few years ago. Then too, Syrah was controversially bumped up as part of the “principal varieties” alongside Duras and Fer (Servadou).
The region’s winemakers are also hoping to modify regional production to incorporate a maximum 10 percent of local varieties Felen and Verdanel on a trial basis.
Other changes are also being tabled, including the introduction of Fer to the permitted varieties for Gaillac Primeur production (Gamay is currently the only such variety). The proposed changes were filed with the INAO in August last year and a commission is currently reviewing the proposals.
Plovdiv named top wine destination
This one has been knocking around for a while but the southern Bulgarian city of Plovdiv has topped a European poll of the best wine tourism destinations on the continent, outperforming the likes of Bordeaux, Rioja and the Douro Valley. The city, which lies close to the Bulgarian wine regions of the Thracian Lowlands and Danubian Plains, was dubbed a “Culinary and Wine Paradise” by Brussels-based European Best Destinations tourism organisation.
The organisation, whose remit is to promote culture and tourism in Europe, conducted a survey of 284,123 wine lovers from 82 countries, with Plovdiv coming out on top. While it’s clear the city was also favored due to its neighboring scenery and culinary experiences, it has also hosted a range of wine and wine-adjacent events lately.
These have included hosting the Vinaria (the International Exhibition of Vine-Growing and Wine Production), the Digital Wine Communications Conference, and the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles and Spirits Selection.
Nonetheless, Plovdiv’s snatching of the top spot is something of a coup when compared to the remaining nine destinations which run, in order, through Bilbao & La Rioja, Bordeaux, Porto & The Douro Valley, Tuscany, Champagne, Piedmont, Alsace, the Mosel Valley and Santorini.
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