Val d’Orbieu is like a cooperative on steroids. Actually, it’s a misnomer to call this organization, with its 1,000 winemakers, 11 cooperative wine cellars, and 65 individual cellars, a cooperative. It’s really a growers association with each domain making wine as it wishes, relying on help from the association’s staff as needed, and using pooled marketing resources.
The numbers for this association are impressive:
• €200m in sales in 2008.
• 130m bottles of wine sold annually.
• 200,000hl of wine produced annually.
The association’s major value is its commercial role. Les Vignerons du Val d’Orbieu, its marketing arm, is located in Narbonne (where the association has its headquarters), and a central bottling and labeling center, Trilles, is in Maureilhan, near Béziers.
An association like this one allows smaller domains to better market their wine, as well as providing the quantities of wine demanded by large supermarkets. Members of Les Vignerons du Val d’Orbieu vinify their own wine and oversee maturation, rather than selling just the grapes as would happen with a cooperative. Staff viticulturists regularly visit the member domains to ensure quality and to provide them with expertise, and an oenologist is also available for providing advice and assistance, as well as being responsible for controlling the winemaking and blending of centrally produced Val d’Orbieu wines, such as their leading wine, La Cuvée Mythique, a pleasing blend of Syrah, Mourvèdre, Grenache, Carignan and Cabernet Sauvignon.
Val d’Orbieu recently obtained the right to label its wine as organic (“bio” in French). In effect, this labeling only allows mention of “vin issu de raisins de l’agriculture biologique” (“wine made from organically grown grapes”), as only the grape farming process in the vineyard has a detailed and restrictive set of specifications at the moment. Totally organic wine does not exist yet in France, or in Europe for that matter. A host of philosophical questions—What dose of sulfur dioxide (SO²), the chemical compound used to prevent wine from turning into vinegar, should be permitted?, What about stabilizing products?, What type of yeasts are acceptable?, etc.—need to be determined before organic vinification standards can be set.
The switch from conventional agriculture to organic is accelerating in France, even though it represents just three percent of the country’s vineyard surface area today. The investment in time (it takes three years to make the conversion) and effort is considerable, and Val d’Orbieu obviously sees this as a benefit in selling its wines.
The Val d’Orbieu growers association is also pointing the way forward for sustainable development in the French winemaking industry. It, along with five other partner companies, and researchers from the University of Montpellier and the University of South Australia, are researching consumer and distributor attitudes to wine produced using sustainable techniques that conserve water use and protect the environment. A press conference to explain the Inter Oc Sustainable Development project will be held at the February 22-23 Vinisud wine conference in Montpellier. I’ll write more about this interesting effort after the conference.
