117. Why You Can't Buy Spanish Wine at a French Supermarket - The Wine Wars of the Languedoc — Wine Educate: Wine Lessons, Travel & WSET Study Prep

Episode 117: Why You Can't Buy Spanish Wine at a French Supermarket - The Wine Wars of the Languedoc

Host: Joanne Close Episode Length: 10:50 Release Date: June 25th 2026

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Episode Description

Joanne heads into Narbonne to do a grocery run at the local Carrefour and comes back with a story. Two full aisles of wine, almost entirely French, overwhelmingly local, and not a single bottle of Rioja, Barolo, or Albariño in sight. This episode is about why that is, and the surprisingly dramatic history behind it.

The Languedoc produces around a third of all wine made in France, and local growers have fought hard to protect that. Joanne traces the story back to 1907, when hundreds of thousands of producers took to the streets of Narbonne and Béziers to protest collapsing prices and rampant fraud. What followed was more than a century of unrest, culminating in the Wine Wars of the 1970s through 1990s and right up to recent protests in 2023 and 2024 that involved stopped tanker trucks, smashed cases, dumped wine on highways, and tractors blocking motorways.

It is a genuinely fascinating piece of wine history that also happens to explain a lot about the regional pride you feel when you are here, and why the wine aisle at a French supermarket looks nothing like the one back home.

What You'll Learn in This Episode Buying Wine in the South of France

What the wine selection actually looks like at a major French supermarket
Why over 95% of wines available are French, with around 85% being local Languedoc and Roussillon wines
Why Champagne is the one exception and why the Champagne aisle in a French supermarket tends to be exceptional
Where to source non-French wines if you need them for a WSET Level 2 class in the region

The History of the Wine Wars

The 1907 protests in the Narbonne and Béziers area, when hundreds of thousands of growers demonstrated against price collapse and wine fraud
How fraudulent labeling, with wines from other regions being sold as Languedoc, undermined local producers
The pattern of continued unrest through the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, including the targeting of imported wine shipments from Spain
The 2023 attack near the Spanish border when growers stopped trucks, smashed cases, and poured wine onto the highway
The 2024 tractor protests, when farmers blocked highways and dumped manure outside government offices to demand protection for local wine

Why the Languedoc Is Worth Protecting

The Languedoc produces approximately one third of all wine made in France