The French are known for making their opinions known. This time, it’s French winemakers who are angrily protesting — against Spanish wine, no less. On Tuesday morning, nearly 200 French winemakers gathered at the Perthus toll in Boulou, on the border of Spain, to temporary block the route of their competition, La Revue du Vin de France reports.
“We are not against the importing [of Spanish wine] under the condition that it is regulated,” Fréderic Rouanet, President of the Federation of Aude Winemakers, tells La Revue du Vin de France. “When the wine importations were at 6 million hectoliters, there wasn’t any problem for the French market. But since they’ve increased, we were handed over to speculators and profiteers, some of the darkest times in our history.”
Winemakers met early Tuesday morning for their surprise revolt. Around 11AM, winemakers returning to Aude staged a roadblock for over two hours, crippling traffic and causing interruptions on the A9 for nearly seven kilometers. The roadblock was cleared around 2:30 PM, when the Federation received word that a face to face meeting would be had with legislative officials.
This isn’t the first time that pissed off French winemakers have boycotted foreign wine (hello, Tour de France). But this time, they took their anger to the tolls.
