Vine pull schemes are programs whereby

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began approximately 8,0 ...

growers receive a financial incentive to pull up their grape

vine A vine is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas, or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselves, for instance, when used in wicker work.Jackson; Benjamin; Da ...

s, a process known as ''arrachage'' in French. A large program of this kind was initiated by the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

( EU) in 1988 to reduce the

wine lake Wine lake is a cultural phrase referring to the phenomenon of perceived overproduction of wine in the European Union. The phenomenon first came in perception & persistence around the mid-1980s and reemerged in the mid-2000s as a significant iss ...

glut from

overproduction In economics, overproduction, oversupply, excess of supply, or glut refers to excess of supply over demand of products being offered to the market. This leads to lower prices and/or unsold goods along with the possibility of unemployment. T ...

and declining demand. In the first five years of the program, growers, mainly in southern France and southern Italy, were paid to destroy 320,000 hectares or of

vineyard A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...

. This was the equivalent to the entire vineyard area of the world's fourth largest grower of grapes, the United States. The EU has recently resumed a vine pull scheme and Plan Bordeaux proposes additional vine pulls to increase prices for generic

Bordeaux wine Bordeaux wine (; ) is produced in the Bordeaux region of southwest France, around the city of Bordeaux, on the Garonne River. To the north of the city, the Dordogne River joins the Garonne forming the broad estuary called the Gironde; the Gi ...

. It is believed that this has contributed to the "global wine shortage". Research by America's

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in 42 countries and more than 80,000 employees, the firm's clients in ...

financial services firm says demand for wine "exceeded supply by 300m cases in 2012".

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Further reading