French wine militants in spill raid

A SHADOWY group of "wine terrorists" has begun attacking merchants who sell foreign wine in south-western France, with a raid in which tens of thousands of litres were destroyed.

Police are searching for members of the group who poured more than one million bottles of red, white and rose down the drain in their third attack in three weeks.

In the pre-dawn raid, the wine activists broke into the Vignerons des Garrigues, a co-operative in Nimes, pulled the plugs from eight vats and emptied the equivalent of about 1.2 million bottles of wine. The liquid then seeped into an adjacent river.

Co-operative director Jean Foch said the sabotage operation had cost him 600,000 euros ($A1.2 million). He found empty vats daubed with the letters "CRAV". In the Languedoc Roussillon region this stands for Le Comite Regional d'Action Viticole (regional committee for viticultural action), a group that has hijacked tankers of foreign wine and set dynamite at government buildings and supermarkets.

CRAV militants often refer to the 1907 winemakers' uprising in Montpellier, when hundreds of thousands took to the streets to defend growers. The army opened fire, killing six.

The militants oppose merchants who bring wine from Spain or Italy and accuse them of cutting prices to unreasonable levels. "Their action gives a catastrophic image of our profession," said Mr Foch, who represents 10 co-operatives.

While he sells mostly local wine for the mid-range market, he also buys cheaper Spanish wine for the lower grade vin de table. He insists it is only by buying cheaper foreign wine that he can pay more for local produce. He said he had a "good idea" who was behind the attack.