Orléans Court of Appeal
The winegrowers of Restigné (Indre-et-Loire) were fined two €35,000 by the Tours criminal court. Almost three years later, the Breton estate was acquitted by the Orléans Court of Appeal (Loiret), on December 17, 2024.
The end of a legal battle that began after a customs check in the Vouvray vineyards of the farm. On September 12, 2018, agents carried out checks on plots located in Noizay, Chançay and Vernou-sur-Brenne, east of Tours. They had pointed out a “non-compliance” vines, planted, according to customs officials, without prior authorization.
A second inspection, carried out on October 5, 2018, noted plots of vines uprooted in Chançay. Three reports of offenses concerning false declarations of structural modifications, uprooting defects and planting of vines without proper authorizations had been drawn up.
“I don’t understand the sanction, I’m defending a vineyard that I’m trying to rebuild”
In a very technical case, driven by the difference in terms and methods between planting and plantations, Catherine Breton, the winegrower in question, came to provide clarification to the hearing. Rejecting any wrongdoing, she explained the urgency in 2014 to safeguard four plots of the vineyard, within which replacing dead plants with living plants, without a declaration to be made, was essential. We are talking about more than 3,200 feet of Chenin for which she claims to have brought the parts to Customs.
Sharp, she tipped the scales in her favor. “I don't understand the sanction, I'm defending a vineyard: harvesting, making wine and selling, I'm trying to rebuild this vineyard by replacing dead plants with living plants. Customs remained on the snatching. I must keep living plants and have no obligation to uproot them,” she said again.
Four years of procedure
“When Customs blows the whistle, why don't you negotiate? “, asks General Counsel Julien Le Gallo. “Despite letters and exchanges for four years, I never had the opportunity to express my point of view: I plotted and never wanted to commit an offense”answers Catherine Breton.
The lawyer representing Customs requested confirmation of the judgment on the lack of declarations, the tax fines and the obligation to dismantle without delay. The Advocate General, for his part, requested with more nuance the confirmation of the sentence, excluding snatching, while regretting the lack of communication from Customs and the absence of its inspector.
“€70,000 fines for compulsory grubbing and four years of procedure, it’s incomprehensible”, the winegrower's lawyer was indignant, recalling that planting is part of the maintenance of the vines. His calls for total acquittal were heard by the court.
