American vines were banned in France last century after officials decreed that they produced wines that smelt of fox, tasted foul and caused madness and blindness.
Now there are calls to bring them back after a “catastrophically” poor grape harvest added to the woes of France’s enfeebled wine sector.
Modernisers say the vines that were banned by Paris in the early 20th century — mostly hybrids made by crossing two varieties — are more resistant to a range of difficulties caused by climate change and should be authorised once more.
The agriculture ministry has said the 2024 vintage will produce 3.69 billion litres of wine, down 23 per cent compared with last year and 17 per cent by comparison with the average of the past five years.
The ministry blamed the drop on frost in the spring along with hail, and powdery mildew, a vine disease, in the summer — all against a backdrop of heavy rains and a lack of sunshine. Officials said champagne would suffer a 46 per cent fall in production compared with last year, Burgundy would be down by 38 per cent, the Loire Valley by 29 per cent and Bordeaux by 12 per cent.
Analysts say the worst harvest since 2017 will have little impact on prices, at least in the short term, since most French winemaking regions, including champagne, have unsold stocks from previous years in their cellars. But it represents a further headache for the many French vineyard owners whose incomes have fallen amid a downturn in demand for their wines.
A copper treatment is sprayed on vines to kill the fungus that causes mildew
JOLYOT M/ANDIA/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP/GETTY IMAGES
“I never understood farmers who wanted to commit suicide before. Now I do,” Nicolas Castan, a winemaker in the Aude, southern France told Le Figaro.
Denis Verdier, head of the winemakers’ federation in nearby Gard, said: “People are discouraged. We see more and more abandoned vines.” He said winemakers were banking on a €120 million French government plan to offer subsidies to those who rip up unwanted vines.
Some observers, however, believe the French wine sector could find salvation across the Atlantic. Half a dozen grape varieties from the US — Clinton, Isabelle, Noah, Othello, Herbemont and Jacquez — were outlawed in 1934 in France after the authorities announced the wines made from them had a bouquet resembling crushed bedbug or fox, and tasted so bad that drinkers were likely to go blind or mad or both.
Other varieties escaped an official ban but fell out of favour anyway after being tarred with the same brush.
Yet La Revue du Vin de France, a wine magazine, said the claims were mostly hogwash. It said the government of the day had been principally concerned with curbing overproduction by eliminating imported vines. Ministers had acted at the behest of wealthy wine merchants keen to prop up prices and their own revenues.
The banned vines have always had their supporters in France, but the campaign to bring them back is gaining momentum amid claims that they are resistant to drought, excess rainfall and powdery mildew.
“Today, there is not a single meeting … that takes place without the issue of resistant grape varieties being discussed,” Christian Paly, chairman of the Committee of Protected Designation of Origin Wines said. He said the change would be slow, however. “The introduction of resistant varieties comes in a global context of climate evolution and a change in cultural habits and all that takes time.”