Allan Sichel, nouveau président du CIVB, brise le consensus
While the rotating presidency of the Conseil interprofessionnel du vin de Bordeaux (CIVB) is normally as well oiled as a Swiss watch movement, the election of Allan Sichel, representing the family of wine merchants, as president of the interprofession during the general meeting of July 11, this well-established rule was broken. Allan Sichel, manager of the Sichel house, knows Bernard Farges well, representative of the family of winegrowers, whom he had already succeeded as head of the CIVB from 2016 to 2018.
Because in general, not to say at each change, the new president takes care to announce a program identical, almost to the comma, to that of his predecessor. But on July 11, 2022 Allan Sichel decided to break with this co-management, introducing a wedge between the trading and viticulture families. The reason for this historic rupture concerns the uprooting policy to be carried out in an attempt to rebalance the Bordeaux market, which has become heavily in surplus, with large quantities of unsold goods.
“It’s up to us to resuscitate the attractiveness of our wines”
While Bernard Farges spoke out last May in favor of a final, irreversible uprooting of the plots of vines concerned, with financing provided by European premiums, Allan Sichel, in his inaugural speech, gave a different version of this scenario while returning to the fragile evolution of the markets.
“The most important subject today for our sector is its marketing volume. The production of Bordeaux wines in a normal year – around 5.5 million hectoliters – is now much higher than our marketing volumes. Or, even if we identify avenues for export development, it is unlikely that we will be able to compensate for the continued decline in wine consumption on the French market, which, I remind you, represents 55% of our sales. the trend is to “drink less but better”, translates that it is an opportunity! It is up to us to resuscitate the attractiveness of our wines…”, first recalled Allan Sichel during his speech .
Working close to the consumer
The new president, who represents a world of trading which broadly shares his vision of the method to be adopted to get out of the rut, then returned to proven sales promotion levers, and in particular to operations organized as part of the latest edition of Bordeaux Fête le Vin, the aim of which is to bring wine producers and consumers closer together.
“This is how we will show the reality of our sector, its faces, its diversity, its know-how, its human, family and agricultural dimension. The consumer only asks for that – and that’s good, that’s what We are! These efforts to boost sales will have to be multiplied. It will be necessary to be consistent over time, because the results will take a long time to obtain,” argued Allan Sichel.
Essential for Allan Sichel that the conversion be reversible
This question of being able to activate a rebound in sales of Bordeaux wines is at the heart of the debate. Allan Sichel believes that it will be difficult but that it remains feasible, when other ideas than this battle of volumes is lost since the market would have structurally changed scope, with wine consumption directed downwards in a sustainable way in France. Hence the flexibility that Allan Sichel wants to introduce into his strategy.
“In the transition we are experiencing, it could be wise to reallocate certain wine-growing land to human or animal food cultivation, carbon capture or green energy production. implemented quickly and in the interest of all. The reasons for conversion within the vineyard exist; there are needs and opportunities opposite. It is up to us to compare them, and to assist, accompanied by our operators, by facilitating this transition.
On the other hand, it seems to me essential that this conversion be reversible. The conquest of new markets will be long, we will return to the path of growth and it would be a shame if our potential were definitively cut off. We must therefore take care to preserve all the good terroirs. And, thus, to ensure that our vineyard can meet a potential increase in future demand…”, analyzed Allan Sichel.
Last May Bernard Farges wanted to finance the final uprooting
It is nonetheless true that sales of Bordeaux have continued to decline overall in recent years. From the historically low threshold (since 1991) of 4.7 million hectoliters sold in 2018, the volumes sold increased to 4.1 million hectos in 2019 then 3.9 million hectoliters in 2020. Many factors, starting with the Covid-19 have, it is true, pushed the market down. But few market connoisseurs would dare to put this development in the box of exceptional events. And during the general meeting last May Bernard Farges, then president of the CIVB, had been clear about the strategy to follow, which was very much shared by the family of Bordeaux winegrowers.
“It is not a question of knowing whether to reduce the areas of vines in production because this is in progress, it is now a question of acting to organize, accelerate, direct this useful reduction for everyone. However, it is must be remembered that the European texts do not allow today to finance the definitive grubbing up with public money. Remembering this does not mean that we are against grubbing up (…)”, Bernard Farges specified in particular .
Because to finance the final uprooting of the vine in Bordeaux, and other vineyards, the president of the CIVB had then recommended a regionalization of certain European financial aid.
“The vineyard can no longer continue to operate under assistance”
“Traders want inexpensive volumes and they also want to be able to replant quickly to produce more in case the markets take off again. But hey, it’s no longer the table that organizes meals, it’s the fridge. Traditional meals are disappearing and it’s the same for old-fashioned wine drinkers, baby boomers. Traders defend a sociological perimeter that no longer exists. Even in the canteen of the regional council, which is a great support for the sector, there is no There is no wine on offer: you have to go and ask for it! Which shows that people live in a kind of schizophrenia”, clarifies for La Tribune Dominique Techer, spokesperson for the Confédération paysanne de la Gironde and co-manager of Château Gombaude- Guillot, in Pomerol, which produces organically.
For him the problem goes well beyond a simple problem of momentary consumption of a product and reflects a shift in society towards a model where wine has ceased to be considered as food, as it was the case until the 1970s, to become not an alcoholic drink but an alcohol… definition that most children today know by heart.
“The vineyard can no longer continue to operate with bank assistance, it’s untenable. The merchants want us to continue living in oenological fictions, but we have to get back to reality. And reality is hundreds of vats full of Bordeaux unsold”, unroll Dominique Techer.