The Languedoc wine industry refuses to give up over Sud de France brand name

he verdict on the regional brand Sud de France seems final after it was confirmed in July by France’s Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau. “But we are not throwing in the towel. We refuse to give up a brand in which we invested for sixteen years just like that. It is the only shared banner for our PGI and PDO wines in what was formerly known as the Languedoc-Roussillon region”, claims Gilles Gally, chairman of the Languedoc negociant organisation UEVM.

Since the first warnings sent out by INAO in 2018 about the legal infringement of the brand, co-operative and independent wineries have generally taken the initiative of gradually relinquishing use of the Sud de France logo on their front and back labels, caps and boxes. A moratorium, however, allowed them to continue using the logo up to and including the 2024 vintage. Bucking this trend, the negociants’ organisation has continually proclaimed its incomprehension and still does not see matters in this light. It has reiterated its determination to exhaust all possible avenues of appeal.

“We will never give up, and if needs be, we will go all the way to the Council of State. The regional industry needs this brand to sell in export markets”, confirms Jean-Michel Sagnier, chairman of the Hérault PGI wine federation. Although the transition period has allowed many companies to remove the statement from their labels, the UEVM has calculated that no fewer than 100 million bottles are year are marketed under the Sud de France brand name. “If you extrapolate that over the 16 years the brand has been used, we’re not far off 2 billion bottles. But on top of this amount are the hundreds of millions of euros invested over the past 16 years in PR and marketing by the wine companies, shippers, co-operative and independent wineries, as well as public funding from the likes of producer organisations and the Occitania regional council”, adds Gally.