Having sold 1,200 euros of Médoc barrels when their cost price exceeds €2,000, the winemaker Rémi Lacombe asks for €1.1 million in compensation from the two trading houses that offered him these prices.
"You are never better served than by yourself. It is up to me as a business leader to defend myself against what is imposed on me," says Rémi Lacombe. - photo credit: DR
Is an unprecedented action for Bordeaux wines: the summons of two merchants of weight* before the Commercial Court of Bordeaux for purchase prices of bulk wine deemed too low by their supplier, the Médoc winemaker Rémi Lacombe. Owner of 138 hectares of vines in Civrac (including Château Bessan-Ségur), the winemaker claims a "public utility action for the sharing of added value in the sector". Revealed by Jacques Dupont in Le Point, this "action for liability" is based for Louis Lacamp, Rémi Lacombe's lawyer, on Article L. 442-7 of the Commercial Code, which sanctions "the fact for a buyer of agricultural products or foodstuffs to have his supplier charge an abusively low transfer price".
Based on invoices ranging from June 2021 to July 2022, Rémi Lacombe's vineyards sold wines at prices ranging from €1,150 to €1,200 per barrel over the 2019, 2020 and 2021 vintages, while the cost prices of the Médoc AOC amount to €2,000/barrel for the 2019 and 2020 vintages, and even €2,500 for the 2021 vintage according to the latest data from the Centre de Gestion Agricole et Rural d'Aquitaine (CEGARA). Defining a fair price of 10% above the cost price, Louis Lacamp asked for compensation of €574,000 from the first trader and €536,000 from the second. "The legal basis is simple: it is forbidden to buy at an abusively low price," summarizes the lawyer, who notes that this regulation, resulting from the Egalim law in 2019, has never been applied before.
By saying no to the broker, it is the banker who call
Faced with the principles of the law of the market balancing supply and demand by prices agreed to on both sides, Rémi Lacombe is categorical: "it is forbidden to make your supplier charge abusively low prices". Receiving take-it-or-leave-it offers, among the winegrowers, "there is always one who cracks: by saying no to the broker, it is the banker who calls," says Rémi Lacombe. "I don't want to make the Médoc useless," he adds, indignant that "the trade buys at a loss and sells without margin, which damages the image of the appellation, [to sell volumes at low prices giving access to other markets]. We are a product of appeal from below, unlike the allocations of grands crus which are products of appeal from the top... »
If his lawyer stresses that it is necessary to be courageous to act against his buyers, the winemaker adds that "he does not forget that the sudden disruption of supply also exists and is also sanctioned ... While Bordeaux wine prices remain low (at least according to the latest official quotations, now suspended), this action could inspire other operators. This is at least the wish of Rémi Lacombe, who hopes to "open routes of hope and remind us that we can always take our own destiny in hand. It will be wonderful if it sets a precedent... »
\
* : Rémi Lacombe and his lawyer do not wish to communicate the names of the two traders, not wishing to target particular companies, but to attack a system of devaluation.
Vitisphere
