Overview
- Organizers expected roughly 5,000 to 6,000 participants to gather in Béziers on November 15 as producers pressed for urgent state action.
- Sector leaders called for revaluation of wine prices and a new 34,000-hectare vine-uprooting plan, which the government must negotiate with the European Commission.
- Protesters also urged looser advertising rules by removing wine from the Evin law to help revive sales.
- Domestic drinking has fallen from about 120 liters per person in the 1960s to around 40 today, with exports to the United States and China reported as tightening.
- Growers reported yields cut in half in places after this summer’s heat and drought, input costs up roughly 25–30% as supermarket prices stay flat, and warnings that future protests could escalate.