Tour de France Dir Christian Prudhomme met on Tuesday with wine makers from the Aude region of France to “talk Chilean wine and the Tour de France,” according to Laurence Creusot of FRANCE 3. Two months ago wine makers “threatened to block the Great Loop” in their region, but have now reached an agreement for the creation of a Wine Pavilion. The “choice to have a Chilean wine as the official wine of the Tour de France was at the center of discussions and the threat of a blockage still looms.” All of the main representatives of the region’s wine industry were there to meet with Prudhomme, “and after two hours the Tour’s proposal was accepted.” The proposal was to create a Wine Pavilion to “promote local production.” Prudhomme said that the Wine Pavilion would offer “tastings and events featuring the wines from the regions the Tour de France crosses.” Prudhomme reiterated that “it was never a choice of a foreign wine over a French wine because there was never a request from a French wine.” The partnership between Chile’s Cono Sur and the Tour de France, signed in ’14 and to run until ’17, “is only active in the stages situated outside of France,” when the Tour passes through Spain, Andorre and Switzerland. But the Aude winemakers union “saw red” when Cono Sur’s “Bicicleta” was chosen as the Tour de France’s wine partner by the event’s organizer Amaury Sport Organization. Union President Frédéric Rouanet said, “We felt humiliated. Here wine is sacred” (FRANCE 3, 5/10).
