France: Refusal to Spray Vines Lands Winemaker in Court

Apr 29, 2015

(Wine-Searcher) - A second biodynamic Burgundian winemaker falls foul of the authorities for failing to apply insecticide.

For the second time in the space of a year, a winemaker from Burgundy has been taken to court for refusing to comply with an official order to treat his vineyard with insecticides.

Thibault Liger-Belair has vineyards in Nuits-Saint-Georges and the Beaujolais appellation of Moulin-à-Vent. The latter straddles the Rhône and the Saône-et-Loire departments, and regulations are different in both jurisdictions.

Inspectors visited his Moulin-à-Vent vineyard in November 2013 and found that there was no insecticide treatment, despite an order from the Sâone-et-Loire authorities to spray for flavescence dorée, a disease spread by the leafhopper insect.

"I argued that I did not have to comply, since the Rhône prefecture did not require it and I am between the two departments,” Liger-Belair said.

He added that the site where the disease broke out was in Plottes in Mâconnais, 25 miles (40 kilometers) from his property, and occurred among Chardonnay vines, while his vineyard is planted to Gamay.

But his arguments have apparently not convinced the authorities, and the winemaker will appear on before the criminal court in Villefranche-sur-Saône on May 19 for "refusal to perform plant protection measures", according to his court summons.

First appearing in 1949 in Armagnac, flavescence dorée is an incurable disease. It causes a yellowing of the leaves and dieback of the vine. Insecticide treatments are designed to kill leafhoppers and thus avoid a spread of the disease, but they pose huge problems for winemakers involved in organic farming.


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