Sticking it to le homme

From Decanter.com:

Violence 'wil escalate' in southern France

It looks like the CRAV (everybody's favorite militant wine group) is just getting warmed up. But evidently not all that is attributed to CRAV is the work of CRAV:

'It's not what it used to be,' he said. 'Some winemakers are using the organisation as a front for their own, individual actions. There are people who are using the CRAV to express their own discontent. It has been badly used – people are signing CRAV on the walls when they're not part of it.'

Maybe something to keep in mind when making generalizations like about people from the South (we're not all racist), people from the U.S. (were not all idiots who blindly support G.W. or any of the rest of the monkeys up on the hill), and so on...

'They say we're the ones who resort to violence but who committed the first act of violence? The economic violence visited on all the producers who've made so much effort on their wines for no reward,' he said.

I, in no way condone these types of actions but it is somewhat understandable where they are coming from. Again, it was the growers/producers in the Languedoc/Roussillon who saw the writing on the walls sometime back and addressed the issues of overplanting and overproduction. Then he brings the ringer:

'We've made efforts. What have the Bordelais done? They've been making a load of rubbish for ages,' he said, describing Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur as 'de la merde'.

For those of you lacking in the French department, that translate roughly into 'Their wine is shit'. I would say apples to apples, I would have to agree. The qualitative difference between the wines of the Languedoc and those of general Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérior is exponential.

Although this guy better be careful with his words. I remember a while back that some writer for a respected journal in France wrote of Beaujolais something like 'C'est vin de merde'. They were calling for his head.