Vines paid to come out still get one last vintage
Of ~28,000 ha approved for the €4,000/ha grubbing aid, only ~20% are already out of wine. Most will still be picked in 2026. The only hard date is 31 December.
The aid pays to take the vineyard out. The scissors still go in first.
Vitisphere's Alexandre Abellan, 1 September: about 28,000 hectares applied for the €4,000/ha definitive grubbing scheme. By the end of August only 20 percent of that land was already out of wine. Jérôme Despey, who chairs FranceAgriMer's wine council: "there is very little grubbing done before harvest."
Declarations to unlock payment sit at about 5,700 hectares, €23 million. €18.5 million has already been paid, on time. Currently: Occitanie about 2,600 ha, Gironde about 1,300 ha. Despey expects the work and the paperwork to speed up after late September.
Some in the trade wanted no crop on aided vines this year. Despey: the grower is the judge. The scheme was late — France notified Brussels on 2 April, the Commission signed on 3 June, after an AMI that ran 6 February to 6 March. The deadline itself was pushed five months, to 31 December 2026.
Jean-Christophe Darbeau, Gers: a contractor costs €1,000/ha and now wants 50 percent up front. He has no cash, so he will sell half of his last crop as must, then take six hectares out. The rule does not forbid a vintage. It forbids the vines still standing on New Year's Day.
Crisis distillation is still paying too: 673,445 hl of red and rosé, €22.22 million of a €40 million envelope.
Mini-concept: a grubbing cheque is not a harvest ban. It is a date.
A flavoured can was never a last vintage. These rows still pay one more pick before they come out.
Remember: 80 percent of the aided vines will still be harvested in 2026.
Source: Vitisphere