Wine related articles
Wine in the gas tank?
French winemakers seek ways to diversify -- perhaps into biofuel -- as exports
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PARIS (Reuters) - French motorists could soon be tanking up on biofuel from grapes as the country's wine industry seeks new outlets to combat declining sales, overproduction and intense competition from abroad.
France is the world's largest winemaker, producing 1.531 billion gallons in 2004, according to Onivins, the country's state-run wine body.
Grape-based alcohol would require distilling and then dehydrating before it could be turned into pure alcohol ready to be added to conventional fuel.
"We are now starting to look into it, but it is mainly the economics of such a green fuel that we are studying," Eric Bontemps, head of research at the cooperative wine institute ICV, told Reuters.
The alcohol yield from grapes was seven times lower than for sugar beets, Bontemps noted.
France produces 200,000 tons of ethanol a year, the third-argest European output after Spain's and Poland's, coming largely from sugar beets or cereals.
"With an annual output surplus of 400 million liters, we could produce 40 million liters of alcohol to be potentially used in biofuels," Bontemps said.
"But with some research I think we should be able to increase the amount of alcohol that vines can produce, through distilling techniques for example," he added. "It could be worthwhile for struggling winemakers to do that as an additional income," Bontemps said.
Last week Roland Courteau, senator for the southwest region of Aude and a champion of the wine industry, urged France's Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau to help the wine industry diversify.
"Regarding the use of wine surplus in biofuels, I consider this is a good idea," Bussereau said, adding that wine marc and dregs were already used to produce ethanol. Courteau said the minister agreed to set up a working group from December to study yields and types of vines. Other countries were making similar research, he added.
Struggling winemakers
"French wine growers have been in a deep crisis over the last five years when consumption in France stabilized and exports started to drop," a spokeswoman at Onivins said.
Consumption in France averages 3.5 billion liters, exports 1.5 billion liters and around 0.4 billion liters are distilled to produce brandy, she said, adding that France did not have outlets for more than 5.5 billion liters.
"And because the 2004 harvest was at 5.8 billion liters we now have a stock of 4 billion liters, which is a level we had never reached in the last 10 years.
"This year we had to distill 150 million liters, including Bordeaux and Cotes du Rhone wines to lighten the market," she added.
Bontemps said the sector had to react. "There is no reason why sales should increase so we have to find other solutions."
Courteau said the crisis was such that vintners were contemplating ripping out vines, but he did not want to see vineyards turned into wasteland.
"Also we can't exclude the possibility that young wine producers may commit acts out of total despair because of the money they have borrowed for their businesses," he added.
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