Wine: “Pointed out and slandered”, the Castel merchant assumes to maintain its pricing practices

“Pointed out and slandered”, the wine trading giant Castel Frères announced that it would not change its prices and would withdraw temporarily of all the institutions in the Bordeaux wine industry.

In an open letter published at the beginning of May 2024, the merchant Castel Frères addressed “the collective Viti 33 and to all the wine growers present in front of our doors on February 28.”

A demonstration at the gates of the Blanquefort warehouse

As a reminder, that day, around a hundred wine growers from the National Federation of Agricultural Operators’ Unions (FNSEA) 33, the Young Farmers (JA) 33 and the Viti 33 collective demonstrated on the Blanquefort site. At the heart of the conflict, the wine price which did not “respect production costs”.

In mid-April, the two unions and the president of Viti 33 received a summons to court from the trader. He is demanding more than 100,000 euros in compensation after the dumping of manure, hay, tires and vine stocks in front of the merchant’s huge factory, considered the largest winery in Europe.

Castel refuses to sit at the negotiating table

The winegrowers expressed their “incomprehension” in a context of discussions bringing together winegrowers, merchants, distributors and the State around the price of wine. “Castel Frères is once again fanning the embers, it’s incomprehensible,” reacted Didier Cousinet, president of Viti 33, to our colleagues at Republican South-Gironde.

Castel does not see it that way and affirms that the demonstrators are at the origin of the impossibility of the exchange. “No dialogue, no agreement will be possible as long as there continue to be threats not of demonstrations, but of blockages, which promise further damage, and as long as the image of the Castel company and more broadly of Trading is not restored,” retorted the trader in his letter.

“Should we believe that the current crisis weighs only on the shoulders traders? », added the trader who emphasizes that he is also affected by “this dramatic and historic crisis. »

The giant Castel therefore announced at the end of the missive, “maintain [son] choice of pricing practices” for Bordeaux wines, but also withdraw from institutions in the sector to “make our voice and our anger heard”. A new stage in the Bordeaux vineyard crisis.

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