“I'm fed up, I'm stopping everything”: Laurent Mulero, winegrower in Montaud, has opted for permanent uprooting

The decision was hard to make. He admits it. “It's not easy to stop a passion like the one I have for vines and wine. I always wanted to do this but today I'm tired of it. I stop everything“, confides Laurent Mulero, a 39-year-old winemaker in Montaud, without bitterness or despair.

On the other hand, he is resigned, as well as relieved after having decided, once the definitive uprooting assistance system opened on October 15, to take the step without the possibility of turning back. In any case, he doesn't even think about it, being able to find support if necessary from his family who supports him in his decision, without making him weigh the weight of the family heritage.

“It had become too difficult between the losses of production at each harvest for five or six years due to the repetition of climatic hazards. And less production means less money coming in. Then, with wine consumption declining in France, selling it becomes more and more difficult. It is not an essential product. It is impossible in these conditions to earn a salary, barely €500 per month. It's untenable, and even more so with two young children, even if my partner works. It all weighed too much on me. I had to take this weight off. I just did it with this decision. I will be able to move on to something else“, adds the winemaker. A look back.

When the climate disrupts everything

After studying at the agricultural high school and in BTS viticulture-oenology, then ten years of vineyard season in the region, he decided to return home in 2014 and take over part of his grandfather's vines, in Montaud, in the very place where he grew up and played near them. Rather than bringing his production to the cooperative cellar as his grandfather did, he decides to keep it to make his wine. He also converts all his plots to organic farming and plants hedges within them and along their edges.

Managing his vines biodynamically, he does everything by hand, even exhausting himself. No matter, the passion is there, still firmly anchored in his body. “I was constantly running between the vineyard, the cellar, paperwork, marketing. But it's too complicated to manage when you're all alone. It's too much stress. I ended up burning out. And when climate change resulted in a hazard every year from 2018, it became impossible to maintain“, relates Laurent Mulero.

Stop everything. He begins to think about it in 2021, three years after the heatwave on the vines in June 2018 which caused a large number of them to perish. However, he still hesitates. “I said to myself, come on, one more year, you never know. But the situation has only deteriorated. I gave up everything this year. I didn't pick anything from the vines“, he says. So, when the permanent removal assistance device is activated, then opened, it goes ahead.

A bonus to settle the accounts

Of the 7 ha of vines received as a family donation, he had already had a little more than 3 ha uprooted without financial assistance. This time, 2 ha will be uprooted. The aid system provides €4,000 per hectare of vines uprooted. “This will allow me to finance the uprooting and pay my contributions to the MSA, or to close my activity without debt. This is what the bonus will be used for“, explains the winegrower. And by the end of the year, he will change his professional status, going from farm manager to agricultural contributor.

Although the activity as an operator will no longer exist, Laurent Mulero has not given up on pursuing his passion. To do this, he preserved 1.5 ha of an old Carignan, which dates from the 1960s.”It is the oldest vine on the farm. It was planted in front of the house. She saw me grow up. I kept it to continue harvesting in a festive spirit with friends, and wine, just for fun“, he comments. The uprooted plots will remain fallow for the moment. As for him, he will now spend seasons with others in the vineyard.