Champagne Leaders Change Their Mind

A very interesting piece from Wine Searcher written by Caroline Henry on the seemingly deliberate reversal by the Union des Maisons de Champagne undoing the ‘no herbicide’ program that was put in place five years previous. Now a battle between the true custodians of the land - the Association Biologique Champenoise (ACB), a consortium of organic growers, and the Association Viticole Champenoise (AVC) has captured the attention of many around the world who see this as a destructive. I thought the leaders in Champagne were finally embracing the need to care for the land. I guess i was wrong.

Thanks Caroline for writing such an important piece.

C.

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Champagne Producers Rebel Against Environmental Reverse

No one is talking about going to war just yet, but there is definitely an air of discontent between producers and the professional bodies over a controversial move to backtrack on a commitment to cleaning up Champagne's act.

On Wednesday December 6, a group of Champenois winemakers published an open letter in the French newspaper Le Monde opposing Champagne's u-turn on its zero-herbicide policy.They chose the date to coincide with the Annual General Meeting (AGM) off the Association Viticole Champenoise (AVC) where, five years ago, Maxime Toubart, president of the Syndicat General des Vignerons and Jean-Marie Barillère, then president of the Union des Maisons de Champagne, had officially announced Champagne was to eradicate all chemical herbicides by 2025.

According to the open letter Barillère had uttered the following words in 2018: "There are only two possible outcomes: either we move forwards or we are forced to move, with all the risks the latter entails in ecological terms, in terms of image and therefore in economic terms for our industry and our businesses. I prefer to forge a path towards a virtuous Champagne, rather than keep dwelling on the past."

Toubart added: “Our objective is, in a few years' time, to be able to talk about a 100 percent sustainable Champagne, that takes its commitments seriously and can be held up as an example, and which can proudly proclaim: zero herbicides."

However, earlier this year, at a time that the Champagne region had turned bright orange because of its herbicide usage, Toubart, reneged by announcing he would not impose the zero-herbicide policy in the appellation rulebook, the cahier des charges. Ever since, a conflict has been brewing between the Association Biologique Champenoise (ACB), a consortium of organic growers, and the SGV.

The open letter came as a result of several months of failed negotiations, where the ACB pushed the SGV to reinstate its commitment to the herbicide ban, and the SGV putting pressure on the ACB to not go to the press to denounce its decision. Both parties claimed that the intentions of the other party would be harmful for Champagne's image. 

Jérôme Bourgeois, the president of the ACB told Wine-Searcher: "It is unacceptable that a prestigious appellation like Champagne can even imagine walking back a core environmental promise made five years ago, especially in today’s ecological climate."

Toubart never returned our request for a comment, however in his annual address of the AVC he stressed: "Those who claim to work in an environmentally clean way, by definition implied that the others work in ways which are harmful for the environment."Even though neither CIVC co-president took the time to directly comment on the open letter at the AGM of the AVC, one could interpret Toubart's remark as a protest to comments made in the open letter: "We know that the use of herbicides is detrimental to both biodiversity itself and the benefits of biodiversity for crops. Herbicides penalize the microbial life of the soil, the expression of the typical characteristics of terroir, as well as encouraging run-off and erosion of the slopes.

"Herbicides affect the health of workers who are exposed to them and the health of residents in the areas where they are used. The presence of herbicide molecules and their metabolites in bodies of water has already forced water catchment areas in wine-growing communities to be closed and filtration systems have had to be installed at an exorbitant cost for communities."

It is important to point out that the letter was published by a mix of winegrowers, regrouped under "An End to the Use of Herbicides in the AOC Champagne Collective" and it includes several winegrowers who are not certified organic. According to Bourgeois this shows that this is not an internal fight between organic and non-organic growers, but rather "a fight of all engaged producers for a cleaner and greener Champagne by producers who all believe that in today's society, a premium sparkling wine appellation like Champagne should at least strive to be herbicide free".

Jean-Baptiste Geoffroy, from Champagne René Geoffroy, eradicated herbicides more than a decade ago, but so far, he has not opted for organic conversion. He told Wine-Searcher he signed the letter because he believes that "if one makes a commitment, one should respect it, even if it comes with difficulties". He added: "It further was a disgrace for the Champagne appellations to negate their environmental commitments, while it continues to market a 'green' image, which it is not willing to enforce."

And, indeed, David Châtillon, Barillère’s successor as UMC president, spoke in his AVC address in great length about the importance to preserve "Champagne's perceived image". Unlike Toubart, he did reiterate that the Champagne houses and the Champagne region remain fully committed to its zero-herbicide engagements, without specifying a date by when these commitments would be enacted. One could wonder how committed the Champagne houses really are because, even though they are mentioned in the open letter, only one house, Champagne Leclerc Briant, represented by Frederic Zeimett, signed the letter. It is clear that the other houses, regardless of their efforts to eradicate herbicides in their own vineyards, remain wary of offending grape suppliers who still use them.

Toubart, is not planning to steer away these growers by force from their dependence on herbicides and he reiterated that he would not impose the zero-herbicide policy, because he did not want to exclude growers who could or would not meet this requirement from the appellation. He added that in his opinion things were evolving in the right direction because, according to the CIVC's technical teams: "Champagne was greener than it ever had been before."

And, indeed, during the technical part of the AVC address, Arnaud Descotes, the CIVC's outgoing technical director had affirmed that "despite what one may have been able to see on social media, Champagne has never been as green as it was this spring when comparing historical herbicide IFT's (Indicateur de Fréquence de Traitement)." The IFT is the amount of chemical treatments (in this case herbicides) used per growing season and it is a dubious historical measurement tool in the context of constantly evolving legal requirements.

For instance, the new herbicide law enacted last year severely restricted the authorized maximum amount of herbicides per treatment, the number of treatments allowed, as well as the authorized herbicides. Moreover, when herbicide IFTs are calculated at the beginning of spring, rather than at the end of the growing season, they disregard the bulk of the herbicide usage, since now most pre-emergent herbicides have been legally banned. 

However, one could argue comparing herbicide IFTs in spring adds to the perceived green image, but seeing the growing support from wine professionals all over the world, it is not sure that that green image is as solid as the CIVC would like it to be.

Matthew Lamb, group beverage manager of the Lo & Behold Group and general manager of Clink Clink in Singapore signed in support of the open letter because "the region needs to embrace working in a better way from a viticultural perspective. As the global leader for sparkling wine, Champagne should be setting the high watermark for others to achieve and aspire towards."

This is very much in line with the closing lines of the open letter, which states: "We are the actors and custodians of one of the most prestigious wine appellations in the world. What kind of Champagne do we want to leave to our younger colleagues, to our children, to our fellow Champagne citizens? 

"We, Champagne winegrowers, Champagnehouses and members of cooperatives, call upon the SGV and the UMC to continue implementing their progress strategy by respecting the deadline of 'Zero Herbicides by 2025', embracing an effective and sustainable commitment of our sector, in the interests of all stakeholders in the Champagne region and our fellow citizens."