Bordeaux top for pesticide use in Que Choisir survey

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In case you missed it there was an interesting - and rather alarming - report last week from the French consumer group Que Choisir. It tested 92 bottles of wine and found traces of pesticides in every one, including the organic wines though levels were lower in the latter.

It didn't seem to make any difference how much the wines, which ranged from 1.63€ to €15 in price, cost. The highest pesticide count was found in a 2010 Bordeaux costing 10.44€, in which 14 different chemicals were detected, followed by a 3.75€ 2012 Bordeaux which contained traces of 13 products, according to the report.

It also claims that wine producers in France account for 3.7 percent of farmland but 20 percent of the country’s pesticide use (T reckons the figure is higher than that). France is the highest user of pesticides in the EU according to Que Choisir using 62,700 tonnes in 2011. Some of the chemicals identified were illegal, according to this extended report from Wine Spectator though none were present in dangerous concentrations.

For more detail on the report see Bloomberg's report here and, for French speakers, a report in Le Figaro here.

Big increase in French organic viticulture

I'm still flat out on the current book project but thought I'd post this link to a report in The Drinks Business on the latest figures on the extent of organic viticulture in France which now accounts for nearly 6% of total wine production.

More interesting is the rate at which the rate of conversion is speeding up. According to Elizabeth Mercier of France Agence Bio at Millésime Bio in Montpellier last week Languedoc-Roussillon’s organic vineyard coverage increased by 51.9% from 2008 to 2009 (the last date for which statistics are available), Rhône-Alpes by 50.8%, Aquitaine by 45.2%, Burgundy by 43.2% and Provence-Alpes-Côtes d’Azur by 34.6%.

The report points out that growth was slower in the Loire and Alsace (7.1% and 13.5% respectively over the same period) but doesn't take account of the fact that those regions already have a significant number of organic and biodynamic producers.

There are also current figures for Italy and Spain.

Whilst on the subject of France I've found a new site, Club du Vin Authentique which has a very interesting - and alarming - feature on the level of pesticides in conventionally produced wine. (In French, I'm afraid)

The price we pay for pesticides

Just to draw your attention to a report in the Telegraph yesterday on the death of a 43 year old vigneron Yannick Chenet whose death from leukaemia has been linked to the pesticides he sprayed on his crops including vines.

The report claims that over a quarter of the pesticides that are used in Europe each year are used in France and that a fifth of that amount goes onto vineyards despite the fact that they only account for 5% of France's agricultural land.

I've read that elsewhere although the figures vary. In Jean-Charles Botte's Le Guide des Vins Vivants (2007) he quotes microbiologist Claude Bourguignon who used to work for the French National Institute of Agronomic Research (INRA). Bourguignon claims that vines only represent 2% of farmed land in France but use 30% of the pesticides, resulting in a loss of biodiversity as well as a hazard to the health of those who handle them. You can find his website here.