Winemaker and president of Château de Pena, the Cases-de-Pène cooperative cellar, Jean-Christophe Bourquin was elected this Thursday, June 27, president of the Roussillon Interprofessional Wine Committee.
The logic was respected. The only candidate in the running, Jean-Christophe Bourquin was elected president of the Roussillon Interprofessional Wine Committee, this Friday June 27 in Perpignan. He succeeds Stéphane Zanella, whose end of mandate was tense. Tensions still there during this elective general assembly. A secret ballot was therefore requested and abstentions were more numerous than usual.
Managing the Cases-de-Pène cooperative cellar, the new president makes appeasement one of his absolute priorities. “There is of course emotion after this election,” agrees Jean-Christophe Bourquin. “For a winegrower, what I am and remain above all, it is a special moment. I am a man of the field, my first desire is to unite energies and people like in the rugby teams where I played in Thuir and Millas We will carry out an audit to better understand why the CIVR is not appreciated enough by the companies and winegrowers who contribute to it. We must restore desire and confidence.
“We must highlight our signs of quality”
The departure of the Collioure-Banyuls vintage at the end of 2024, the desire for emancipation whispered by others, the refusal of major cooperative cellars to sit on decision-making bodies decline this distrust, sometimes transformed into mistrust. Armed arm of the promotion of Roussillon wines, the CIVR must convince again. All this after a historically weak 2023 harvest (430,000 hectoliters), a still-threatening drought, despite the welcome spring rains, and a grubbing campaign which promises to be cruel.
“We have to open it up, this feeling of operating in a vacuum must disappear,” adds the president of Château de Pena. “We must put promotion back at the center of our actions, put the church back at the center of the village. We will have to rethink our actions, with, for 2025, refocusing our budgets on strong communication and promotion actions. We take Roussillon wines beyond the department. We must highlight our quality signs (AOC, AOP, etc.). We will see what comes from the commissions that we wish to set up. Everyone must re-appropriate the CIVR. It will also be necessary to dust off its statutes which are more than 10 years old.
Didier Rodriguez, representing trading, was elected vice-president of the CIVR. He runs the MDD company and owns the Sol Payré estate in Elne.
