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Bordeaux labelling battle looms

Published:  23 July, 2008

A Bordeaux Syndicat has set itself against the region's ngociants by threatening to withhold certificates allowing wine sold to be labelled Bordeaux or Bordeaux Superior unless it has been bought for minimum price of e1,000 a tonneau.

The Syndicat Viticole des Bordeaux et Bordeaux Suprieur - supported by the agricultural workers union and militant group Jeune Agriculteurs - is angry that the price paid by ngociants for wines from the region's two generic' appellations has been falling steeply in recent years (reaching e750 per tonneau this year).

A vote will be held today (2 December) at an Assemble Gnerale Extraordinaire to decide whether to withhold

the certificates. Whatever the result, demonstrations against the ngociants are expected.

The Union des Maisons de Bordeaux, which represents the ngociants, called the proposals totally illegal but above all impractical' and added that any solution to the current crisis in Bordeaux should be applied with a note of realism and economic vision and should be completely disconnected from political and electoral objectives'.

Douglas Morton, consultant to the trade body Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux (CIVB), declined to comment until after the result of the vote was known.

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