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In an open letter published in the daily newspaper Le Monde, 125 winegrowers in Champagne have called for the decision to abandon chemical weed control by 2025 to actually be implemented. The goal of "zero herbicides in 2025" was decided in 2018 by the Association Viticole Champenoise (AVC), but was withdrawn in April 2022 by the president of the Syndicat Général des Vignerons (SGV), Maxime Toubart - and thus not written into the specifications of the AOC Champagne. The winegrowers are protesting "against the about-turn of the Champagne trade association. Currently, the use of herbicides in Champagne is still motivated solely by ease of application, combined with a lack of knowledge about the environmental and health impacts of the molecules used," the letter states.
While accepting the principle of derogations for parcels that are difficult to work ("with steep slopes or sloping"), the signatories note that "these solutions are easier to implement in an AOC with very high added value like ours", even more so "in a very favourable economic context". They call for "exemplary" behaviour because "the alternatives to herbicides exist. They have been presented for fifteen years by the technical services of the Comité Champagne and the Chambers of Agriculture".
Today, 8 December, is the AVC's General Assembly, which brings together the entire Champagne sector. The letter is to influence the decisions of the meeting, a reaction from Maxime Toubart is expected. A few days ago, the chairman of the Association des Champagnes Biologiques (ACB), Pascal Douquet, resigned prematurely because he is also a member of the board of directors of the SGV and fears a conflict of interests in his double function.
Among the signatories of the demand are Jérôme Bourgeois, the new president of the ACB, Frédéric Zeimett, general director of Champagne Leclerc Briant, Charlotte De Sousa and Mélanie Tarlant *****.
(al / Source: vitisphere; Photo: Union de Maisons de Champagne)