“Unfair competition” is the 150 French vintners’ claim as to why they attacked a massive wine shipment headed into France from Spain on April 4.
The assailants attached five tankers, unscrewing the trucks’ caps and pouring the red and white wine directly into the street—estimated to be a whopping 90,000 bottle equivalent.
After contacting the French ambassador, the Spanish Foreign Ministry said the rampage was a violation of EU rules, which allows goods from union states to move freely throughout.
Some of France’s winemakers disagree.
According to a Foreign Policy report, Denis Pigouche, president of a Pyrenees-Orientales winemaker association, told reporters that the Spanish “have no place in France.”
This incident comes after a recent report that the French are the number one importers of Spanish wine; a wine that French winemakers believe is of poor quality, the FP report said.
French winemakers claim the Spanish sell the wine at low prices, sharking the France-made wine—taking away business from the “authentic” product, according to the report.
The report also says that on that same day, three other trucks were stopped but let go half-full after the vintners painted “non-compliant wine” in French on the side. They allegedly took samples of the wine, testing it and proving accusations that their wine is mixed with Latin American products without advertising.
