Vine pulls are no longer a taboo subject in Anjou: “We need to think about this not just quickly, but very quickly”

or decades now, Anjou-Saumur’s area under vine has remained unchanged, standing at around 20,000 hectares and ballasted by the popularity of sweet rosés, particularly Cabernet d’Anjou. Sales of the appellation’s wines reached 320,000 to 330,000 hectolitres a few years ago, dropping to 280,000 hl over the last campaign.

At a recent AGM held by the Anjou-Saumur wine federation, two chairmen advocated for a measured approach to vine pulls in the region, particularly for Cabernet Franc. For former chairman Laurent Ménestreau, “Our current vineyard acreage is too high compared with market needs”. Present incumbent Pierre-Antoine Pinet agreed with his predecessor: “We need to review our acreage to improve its value”.

At the last harvest meeting, one winegrower who has personally committed to removing some of his vineyards provided feedback: “Over the past two years, I have been pulling vines that do not generate the profitability I’m aiming for”, recounted Jean-Marie Gazeau. In total, the Martigné-Briand winegrower removed around 12 hectares of vines – primarily Cabernet Franc – which had over 20% of missing vines as well as small isolated blocks that were costly to farm. “We all have blocks like that”, believes Gazeau, who has since replanted 2 hectares of Chenin to produce Coteaux du Layon.

The process seems to be underway, albeit relatively silently. According to data available for the 2025 crop, Anjou-Saumur’s planted vineyard area totalled 20,251 hectares, which is 136 ha less than in 2024. In the latest FranceAgriMer survey on vine pull intentions, 89 farms (10%) responded positively for a total area of 278 ha.