Beaujolais prices: Winemakers agree uneasy truce

Beaujolais winemakers and negociants have agreed on an unofficial minimum price for this year's vintage, but it is a fragile peace.

Following winemaker protests over Beaujolais prices in September, the region’s négociants have reached an unofficial agreement to buy bulk wine for both Beaujolais Villages and Beaujolais primeurs 2015 at a price of no less than €200 per 100 litres – equivalent to around €1.5 per bottle.

Organic wine will be sold at no less than €300 per 100 litres.

More than 500 Beaujolais winemakers protested in Villefranche-sue-Saone, claiming they were being offered 25% less money for what appears to be a very good 2015 vintage versus prices paid for 2014. Producers had been offered €180 per 100 litres and were demanding at least €220.

The local winemaking council said of the compromise total of €200, ‘Any wine sold below this price will result in the strongest action being taken.’

But, there were signs that Beaujolais Villages producers remain unhappy. ‘The quality of 2015 is truly exceptional,’ Gregoire Hoppenot, of Maison Tremel, told decanter.com.

‘But yields are low because of the drought, so the price offered was untenable. However, the idea of selling both Beauolais Villages and Beaujolais at the same price is crazy. The only good thing about this suggestion is that this should encourage organic viticulture across the region.’

‘There is a decision agreed to in a meeting, and then the reality,’ said Gilles Gelin of Domaine des Nugues in Fleurie, who also owns 44 acres of Beaujolais Villages. ‘I can’t see this lasting’.