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Unless you managed to stock up before our president once again declared the sale of alcohol illegal, chances are you’re currently navigating the murky waters of black market booze procurement.

You’re not alone on that front, because even our own police force is getting in on the action.

Beer, wine, and spirits come at a significant mark-up, and then there is champagne, which can, of course, only be produced in the Champagne wine region of northeastern France.

Alas, all is not well between those who grow the grapes and those who turn them into the world-famous bubbly, with the Guardian talking of France’s ‘champagne wars’.

Smaller vineyards say they are facing financial ruin if they are not able to sell their grapes, and the industry as a whole is suffering terribly.

Last year’s sale figures came up just shy of 300 million bottles of French champagne sold globally, but this year the figure is expected to be closer to 200 million.

That drop means an industry-wide loss of €1,7 billion (around R34,5 billion):

The sales slump has led to a bitter dispute between the vineyard owners and the champagne houses – including famous names like Bollinger, Moët & Chandon and Piper-Heidsieck – who buy their grapes and turn them into bubbly.

Every July, the two sides meet to agree how many grapes should be harvested. Last year, the maximum allowed was 10,200kg per hectare (2.47 acres).

Image: Francois Mori / AP

This year, the champagne maisons, who are holding a surplus stock of about 400m bottles – out of a total stock of more than 1bn – in their cellars, want the vineyards to harvest fewer grapes to avoid saturating the market and causing the price of champagne to plummet.

They have demanded growers pick no more than 6,000-7,000kg per hectare. The growers say they will not go below 8,500kg per hectare.

Clearly, the disparity between those figures is sizeable, and has resulted in the July meeting wrapping up without an agreement in place, which is the first time this has happened since World War II.

When you consider that some growers can produce as much as 16 000 kilograms per hectare, it puts the 6 000 to 7 000 figure that maisons demand in perspective.

Vineyard owners say that 8 500 kilograms per hectare will just about allow them to stay afloat, but anything lower will sink them.

If no agreement can be reached, the decision to fix a maximum yield will be made by French government officials, which could leave both sides dissatisfied.

David Chatillon, the director general of the Union of Champagne Houses, told AFP he would make no comment while negotiations continued.

Toubart is optimistic a compromise will be found in what the French press has labelled the “champagne wars” when vineyard and champagne house representatives meet on 18 August.

The clock is ticking.

Thibaut Le Mailloux of the Champagne Committee, known by its French acronym CIVC, says that they “are experiencing a crisis that we evaluate to be even worse than the Great Depression” of 1929.

Sadly, a large number of our own local wineries are under similar strain, and many will not come out the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic alive.

[source:guardian]