A large number of smaller French wineries are asking the French Government to underwrite an insurance scheme to protect them from the effects of bad harvests or currency fluctuations. They believe this makes sense for those small estates that find it difficult to cope with such widely fluctuating revenues.

This request has come about following a bad harvest and the current financial crisis.

A French insurance consultant has carried out a study that showed that yearly vineyard income across France typically fluctuates by as much as 40 per cent from year to year, making cash flow decisions hard to predict.

According to the French Ministry of Agriculture figures, average yearly revenues (after basic running costs but before owners pay themselves a wage) range from an average of €11,000 in the Languedoc to €25,000 in the Loire and Aquitaine, €40,000-€60,000 in Alsace and Burgundy, and €125,000 in Champagne.

It could well be that the first step will be to introduce a mutual fund contributed to by smaller winemakers and the European Commission, but a full insurance scheme is the long-term goal.