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The famous wine-growing villages of the Haut-Médoc in Bordeaux - Saint-Julien, Pauillac, Saint-Estèphe and Margaux - form a "poverty corridor", according to a French TV documentary. According to the programme, entitled " Grands Crus, Grand Misère" (Great Vineyards, Great Misery), this extends further across the Gironde estuary to Blaye, Libourne and Saint-Emilion and into the Entre-deux-Mers region.
According to the news website FranceInfo, the turnover of viticulture in the Médoc amounted to 1.3 billion euros in 2021. However, not everyone seems to benefit from this money. For example, the municipality of Pauillac - home to three Prémier Cru châteaux - is among the poorest in the region. The documentary visited the Pauillac food bank ("The only busy institution in town"), where free food is distributed to the needy - and also met workers from Château Lafite-Rothschild there. It felt strange to distribute food to people who worked at Lafite-Rothschild, said a Tafel employee in the documentary.
The reason given for the poor economic situation is that there is no industry in the region and wine-growing is the only source of "often precarious employment".
(al / source: wine-searcher)