Beaujolais Wine Producers Grapple with Vine Disease and Market Challenges
Beaujolais wine producers are grappling with the potential loss of entire vine plots due to flavescence dorée, a rampant disease impacting their plants. This affliction, caused by sap-sucking leafhopper insects, has become prevalent amidst last June’s severe hailstorms, which already struck the vineyards four times during a vital growth period.
Flavescence dorée’s spread has been facilitated by a large number of untreated vineyards in Beaujolais. The disease can be curtailed with insecticides—mandatory in this region—even though some organic growers hesitate to spray, fearing the demise of beneficial insects along with the harmful leafhoppers.
In 2015, Thibault Liger-Belair, an organic vintner, was taken to court for defying an order to spray his vineyard with Pyrévert, an insecticide. He argued that this would annihilate other insects integral to the ecosystem he carefully nurtured.
The current epidemic has been linked to deserted vineyards, where leafhoppers can easily infect neighboring plots. Despite repeated pleas from authorities to treat or eliminate abandoned vines, many still persist.
So far this year, seventeen plots have been eradicated. Currently, 80% of vineyard owners are contemplating whether to remove their vines. If this occurs, vintners can seek reimbursement through the National Agricultural Fund for Mutualization of Health and Environmental Risks (FMSE).
The Beaujolais region has faced challenges recently, with wine sales plummeting in its largest export market, Japan, due to escalating transportation costs. Suntory Holdings drastically reduced its core range of Beaujolais wines from 15 to 3 in July 2022, and raised the prices by a steep 40%.
In the past two decades, the total vineyard area in Beaujolais has decreased from approximately 55,000 acres to 34,000.
