60 growers file for bankruptcy amid Muscadet 'meltdown'

According to Loire Valley wine broker Charles Sydney, around 60 Muscadet vignerons have filed for bankruptcy since this year¡¯s harvest.

A total of 150-200 vignerons are expected to go out of business in the next few months.

Growers have been hit by a number of factors, including the after-effects of 2008¡¯s devastating spring frost, which destroyed up to two-thirds of the crop - and now vineyards are being abandoned or neglected.

'It is also the warning of the coming meltdown of the market,' said Sydney.

'In just five years [in the UK], the effect of duty increases, VAT rates and the pound¡¯s devaluation means that a £5.99 bottle will have gone from having €2.60 of wine in 2006 to a risible €1.38 in 2011.'

He said producers had held their prices and cut their costs, but added: 'Things are now critical and we are facing a situation where there are no obvious savings to be made.'