Revolt of the Languedoc winegrowers

The Revolt of the Languedoc winegrowers was a mass movement in 1907 in Languedoc and the Pyrénées-Orientales of France that was repressed by the government of Georges Clemenceau.
It was caused by a serious crisis in winemaking at the start of the 20th century.
The movement was also called the "paupers revolt" of the Midi.
It was marked by the fraternization of the 17th line infantry regiment with the demonstrators in Béziers.

Languedoc vineyards before the 1907 crisis

Mass viticulture

Wine making in Languedoc developed in the 18th century with the construction of the port of Sète and completion of the Canal du Midi.
Wine, for which the preservation techniques had been improved, could be transported to new markets.
The vineyards were extended and on the eve of the French Revolution about half the land around Béziers was covered with vines.

In 1853 railway lines began to serve Languedoc, which opened new markets to regional viticulture, particularly in the north of the country and its industrial regions.
The biggest consumers were the workers, a large part of whose salary was devoted to the purchase of wine.
The French Third Republic by the law of 17 July 1880 facilitated the massive opening of drinking places.
They were mainly in the working-class districts of large cities, with an average of three outlets for five buildings.
Wine and alcohol consumption skyrocketed.
The beverages sold in these places under the name of wine were extremely poor quality and were often not wine at all.
The damage was such that in the 1890s an anti-alcoholic, syndicalist and socialist movement was born.

A catastrophic half-century

In 1856 the ''Moniteur vinicole'', the press organ of the Parisian wine merchants Entrepôts de Bercy, published a "Classification of viticulture departments in order of importance relative to the extent of the vineyards and the quality of the products".
Except for Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne, ignorance was total.
Almost all the wines of France were ignored by the Parisian trade and the large drinking places.
To mitigate this lack of knowledge, Achille Larive, director of the newspaper, launches a "call to owners of unknown wines".
On 10 September 1856 he published the results of his inquiry.
In the next issue a reader pointed out that the wines of small proprietors were ignored.

In the second half of the 19th century French viticulture also faced several crises: powdery mildew, which spread around 1850 by attacking the leaves of the vine and the fruit, then phylloxera in 1863 and at the end of 19th century downy mildew, another fungus that attaches to the back of the leaves.
It produces oily layers on the leaf surface that cause them to fall early and weaken the vine.
Thanks to Bordeaux mixture, a compound of Copper(II) sulfate and slaked lime, and the introduction of American plants used as rootstocks naturally resistant to phylloxera, the vines completely recovered.

This did not end the manufacture of fake wines.
In ''Le Monde illustré'' of 12 March 1870 an article by Leo de Bernard denounced falsified wine, "petit bordeaux ... made in Bercy, where the tasting service always has its eye and nose open. The containers of this mixture, made of unknown ingredients, are confiscated and placed in a special cell. Their detention does not last long because there is no doubt of their guilt. On the day of execution, the condemned barrels are brought to the bank of the quai d'Austerlitz. A police commissioner ensures that prompt justice is done. When the signal is given the executioner of the high hygienic works opens the flanks of the victim, and from the deep wound a large black flow escapes into the Seine whose hue vaguely recalls logwood, litharge and other harmful drugs."

While everywhere else, especially in the North-West, the area planted with vines was decreasing, it increased in the departments of Aude, Gard.
These four provided 40% of French wine production, rising to almost 45% in the first half of the 20th century.
Production in Haut Languedoc grew rapidly, particularly in the Biterrois and Béziers, self-proclaimed "World Capital of Wine".
Great fortunes were made. Large landowners from industry, finance or the liberal professions had vast estates of several tens of hectares.

Tampered wines appeared on the market to cope with foreign competition.
Exposed fraudsters were not punished.
In 1892 the winemakers of the South demanded official suppression of sugaring and reestablishment of customs duties.
But the market continued to be partly supplied by wines made from imported dried grapes, wines diluted with water, chaptalized wines and even "wines" made without grapes.
However, although vintners gave great prominence to this unfair competition, it did not represent more than 5% of the market.

A demonstration was held in Montpelier on 12 December 1893 and a petition circulated that gathered thousands of signatures opposing fraud and falsified wines.
The first calls for tax strikes were launched with the support of elected representatives who threatened to resign from their mandates.
The radical government opposed them with the argument that the wine crisis was caused by overproduction of wine in the South.

Winemaking cooperation, symbol of the Red Midi

At the start of the 20th century the idea of a winemakers union to improve sales of Hérault