Fines for failure to uproot abandoned French vineyards

Owners of unworked vineyards are encouraged to uproot their vines – and there are plans to lower the offence class for non-compliance so the rules can be more easily enforced.

The rule applies to landowners with sizable vines on their property, not just professional winegrowers, as untended vines can spread disease to neighbouring vineyards. 

Unworked vineyards can serve as reservoirs for diseases, including the dreaded flavescence dorée. 

It is spread by a cricket introduced to France from the United States in the early 20th Century.

If unchecked, flavescence dorée can spread rapidly, causing entire harvests to be lost one year and killing affected vines the next.

It is treated on a departmental level, with prefects usually ordering compulsory insecticide spraying to kill the crickets. 

This has led to several high profile court cases in which organic winemakers have refused to spray their crops with the prescribed chemicals.

Other risks include mildew (a fungal leaf disease spread by the wind dispersing spores from affected plants) and oïdium (another fungal disease spread from abandoned vineyards).

Both are usually treated by spraying, either with copper and sulphur-based fungicides on organic vineyards, or with synthetic fungicides.

Fines and prison sentences for abandoned vines

“When vineyards are left abandoned, the treatments stop and the risk to neighbouring vines increases tremendously,” a spokesman for Sebastien Pla, the senator who steered a bill that changes the classification of the offence through its final stages, told The Connexion.

“The trouble with the existing rules was that leaving vines abandoned was classified as a crime, with prison sentences and fines of up to €500,000.

“This was totally out of proportion, so the new law reduces the offence to a contravention with a fine of €1,500 for a first offence and €3,000 for a second.”

French crimes are judged by different levels of seriousness: contraventions usually result in fines issued by a sworn police or gendarme officer, délits are judged by lower courts, and crimes are judged by higher courts.

The spokesman said the new law, which was passed in June, was needed because vineyard owners who abandoned their vines were often struggling financially.

“They are often either facing bankruptcy or have retired without being able to sell their vineyards and so have little money.

“It is possible to hire a digger and uproot the vines for less than the fine of €1,500, so it is in their interests now to do so.”

Policing the new law is likely to be the task of inspectors appointed by the Ministry of Agriculture, although rural mayors, who have police powers as part of their office, might also issue contraventions.