The play of sunlight and clouds over the lake these days is terrific. However, in the wine cellar of the Fischer family in the village of Grandvaux, high up in the Lavaux, you have just a little time for that. The winemakers are going through difficult times. Complicit in the policy. So Alexandre Fischer, future Patron Saint of the Family thinks at least. He founded with other young winemakers, the protest Committee, “Les raisins de la colère” (The grapes of wrath). On Monday, a fisherman travels with over a hundred mostly West of the Swiss wine-growers to Bern. On the Bundesplatz you want to make of their Situation and against the inertia of the state to demonstrate.

to identify the problems in the wine trade, Fischer invited two colleagues on the estate: Grégory Bubloz, a winemaker from the Region of Nyon, and Lionel Dugerdil, winery owner from Geneva. The three men tell of an industry in which many of the poor, but concealed in such a way that hardly anyone talks about his Worries.

since 2016 will be produced in the Lavaux, more wine , as the Region can sell.

the Crops of The last years were good, the quality was right, and yet the winemakers have a Problem. Your wine will be drank less, and many cellars are filled to the ceiling. Since 2017, the winemakers have sold solely to the white wines from the Lavaux, perhaps the most famous wine region in the country, 15 percent less. Since 2016 will be produced in the Lavaux wine, as the Region can sell.

The domestic market is saturated. The paragraph comes to a standstill. The prices are on the floor. The spiral turns downward. In order to create this year’s Vintage in the storage space, gifted winemakers in the cantons of Vaud and Geneva, the remaining amounts from the class of 2018 to the large retailers. The only condition is that you found that the customers, which include, Coop, Denner, Fenaco and Aldi, buy in the next year, your wine again.

Distorted competition

Other winemakers to have more luck and were able to get their wines yet, but not to cover prices which you cost their production long ago can had to sell. Fischer, Bubloz and Dugerdil agree: “the way we live and operate today, can’t go on. We have no perspective. Something had to happen. Switzerland must protect the winemakers and the local wine is better.”

your Problem you will see in the competition abroad. In concrete terms, Switzerland leave per year, over a Hundred million litres of foreign wine import, without taking the goods with sufficient import duties. “The foreign wines are so a whole lot cheaper because we have much higher production costs. A cost driver are some of the strict environmental requirements of the state,” says winemaker Alexandre Fischer. “I have worked in South Africa,” interjects his colleague Grégory Bubloz. “What’s going on there, as Wine, is measured to the Swiss Standards a joke,” he says.

Nevertheless, these wines may also be sold in Switzerland as organic. Price he could not compete with the South African competition. “Our quality today is as good as never, we can at least compete with the foreign competitors easily,” says Lionel Dugerdil.

For fishing is exceeded therefore, limit the “unfair competition”. He and his winemaker colleagues call for protective tariffs, quantitative restrictions and stricter rules for the import of organic wines.

The wine is an opaque industry. Especially in the case of the trade prices. Grossi a buy the most how to Coop wine, make a Down-payment on each purchased litre of the wine-growers. If the wine is sold during the year, the wine growers later an additional payment. This is to you but not sure. Certainly not, if the market is oversaturated. “I sell a litre of white wine, I get 70 cents. To cover the cost of production, would have to be 2 francs,” says Lionel Dugerdil. He works in Geneva, a flat country, where he can use machines. In the terraces of the Lavaux, a lot must be done by Hand. The production costs are therefore higher than in Geneva. “Per Kilo of Chasselas, a wine-grower would have to earn 7 to 8 francs to make ends meet. Currently, you earn maybe half,” says Alexandre Fischer.

Chasselas for Japan and China

when fixing the quantities harvested, there are special features. In the Vaud wine producers and the wine-growing competent state councillor Philippe Leuba (FDP) will meet in may to a meeting. This is the exact amount is fixed, can be produced per square meter. So that Overproduction is avoided, but also the quality can be secured. The winemaker can have a say, but in the end, the state decides.

Blaise Duboux, one of the best and most successful winemakers of the Lavaux, criticized this Ritual. “This is, as the state would apply to a Restaurant, to remove one or more tables – so very strange,” he says. The state must protect its winemaker better? He will have to introduce tariffs against foreign competition? On a discussion about state intervention does not want to go for Duboux. He calls for Swiss wines in the country are finally marketed better. That’s why he will travel next Monday to rally to Bern, but Zurich, where he enlists at the wine trade fair, “Swiss Wine Tasting” for its products.

“The introduction of protective tariffs is not a solution in a world in which free trade increases.”Cyril Severin, winemaker

While Blaise Duboux market share in domestic, a of other Wine-growers in the Lavaux consistently on the foreign market. Cyril Severin exported 35 percent of its wines to Asia (Japan, China, Hong Kong and Singapore). “We have costs due to the Swiss wages, high production,” confirms it. “You are twice higher than in our neighbouring European countries.” For its export-oriented business model means that: “We can’t connect to the cheap export wines, wines for seven francs, are too expensive for the mass market.” Therefore, it is necessary to concentrate on quality of products and the export market, the Canton of Vaud.

Severin’s model seems to work. Two months out of the year, he travels through Asia. The Travelling is time-consuming, and financially. But the bill goes on. He could sell his wines in the best and middle quality, good prices, writes Cyril Severin from Japan. What he thinks of the protest action on the Federal court? “The introduction of protection, there is no solution in a world in which free trade increases customs duties. If there is a crisis, we must be innovative, new wines to create and look for new markets are looking for. Protests are unlikely to bring something,” says Severin.

the Committee to be “The grapes of wrath” by Alexandre Fischer not to be swayed. It is hoped in Bern on the support of economy Minister, Guy Parmelin, a former Wine maker. With flags and wine-growers, the winemakers will show up hats on Monday before the Federal house. And maybe you catch a better Timing than last Time, as you identify big in the Federal space. You wrote at the time of the 11.9.2001 and no one wanted to be interested, given the events in New York for the winemakers on their tractors.

Created: 28.11.2019, 22:15 PM