Winemaker in court over refusal to spray vines

A Burgundian organic winemaker has been summoned to court for refusing to spray his vines with a pesticide to prevent the spread of disease.

Thibault Liger-Belair

Thibault Liger-Belair owns two vineyards – one at Nuits-Saint-Georges in Burgundy’s Côte de Nuit and the other at Moulin-à-Vent in Beaujolais.

The biodynamic winemaker has refused to spray vines at his vineyard in Beaujolais with a pesticide to prevent the spread of flavescence dorée following an outbreak 25 miles away in the Mâconnais, prompting the French Ministry of Agriculture to summon him to court.

The disease, which is spread by leaf hopper insects, kills young vines and reduces the productivity of older ones, turning the leaves a golden colour and causing the grapes to shrivel.

Because his vineyard in Beaujolais straddles two departments, the Rhône and the Saône-et-Loire, he argued he did not have to spray as the Rhône department had not ordered it, as reported by RFI.fr.

Liger-Belair argues that the pesticide will not only kill leafhoppers, but also other insects that form part of the balance of nature he has built up in his vineyard.

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

Last December another biodynamic winemaker from Burgundy, Emmanuel Giboulot, had his conviction for failing to spray his vines overturned on appeal.

Giboulot was fined €500 back in April but a Dijon judge overturned the fine due to a technicality, as the original order to treat vines had not been first been approved by the minister of agriculture. Giboulot called the new ruling a “victory for citizen power”.

Liger-Belair is due to appear before a court in Villefranche-sur-Saône on 19 May.