Demonstrators do a moony in front of Michel Chapoutier’s head office

ne photo has been doing the rounds recently and has certainly provoked some strong reactions – a dozen young men lined up doing a moony in front of Michel Chapoutier’s head office during the night between January 9 and 10 in Tain l’Hermitage. Their intention was to express their discontent with Michel Chapoutier’s comments on the local radio station Ici Drôme.

On the programme, the Rhone Valley negociant stressed the opportunities afforded for wine by the Mercosur Free Trade Agreement between Latin America and the European Union, notably through the lifting of customs barriers and non-tariff trade restrictions. Chapoutier claimed that farmers “should take a leaf out of the wine industry’s book. If I step into the shoes of a cereal farmer or livestock producer, I would say they need to secure an international organisation that stipulates what is banned and where alignment is needed”. Chapoutier concluded that “different facets of farming shouldn’t be opposed, wine versus cereal crops or livestock for example”. His statement failed to convince, though, causing incomprehension among the farmers his words were aimed at.  

Excerpts of the interview riled a dozen farmers – apparently cereal and livestock farmers more than winegrowers – who have been demonstrating in France in recent weeks. Their intention was to “do a moony for a symbolic photo showing that he had shit on them and treated them like morons”, as Jean-Philippe Banc, the chairman of the Tain l’Hermitage section of the Drôme Young Farmers association put it frankly.

For the young winegrower, “you cannot compare Crozes-Hermitage wines with cereals, milk and meat. When someone says you should take a leaf out of the wine industry’s book, it’s pretty hypocritical considering the crisis the entire wine industry is going through”.