The growers congregated outside Lidl supermarkets in Orange and Bagnols-sur-Cèze to vent their anger at wines allegedly being sold at a loss.
They smashed several bottles of Côtes-du-Rhône wine, which retails for just €1.69 (£1.41) per bottle at Lidl, as the protests mounted.
Jordan Charransol, president of the Young Farmers of Vaucluse, accused retailers of carrying out ‘a downgrading’ of the Côtes-du-Rhône designation.
He told AFP that the wine has a production cost of €1.40 per litre, but he claimed that supermarkets buy it for just €0.80 per litre and then sell it on at low prices.
Charransol, who is a grape grower, said: ‘We want to be paid the price it’s worth so that we can live off it. By slashing prices, they are destroying viticulture.
‘We also appeal to consumers, who have a role to play. They know very well that €1.69 does not pay the wine grower, so they should not buy these wines.’
It is the latest in a string of symbolic protests that have occurred across France over the past year.
In March, growers blocked the motorway leading to Lidl’s distribution hub in Gironde. They were protesting the supermarket’s decision to sell Bordeaux wines for €1.89 (£1.57) per bottle.
At the time, Viti33 group spokesman Bastien Mercier said ‘that price is our death in a bottle’.
Lidl hit back by stating that it ‘only represents 7% of supermarket distribution in France’ and ‘cannot bear the responsibility for the whole sector’.
The supermarket added: ‘Our purchase prices are in line with the rest of the market and are by no means lower than others in this domain.’
On the same day, Spanish and French grape growers joined forces to block the A63 between France and Spain in protest of low prices.
Last October, French grape growers gathered at the Spanish border to hijack lorries carrying crates of wine into France. They unloaded the lorries and smashed the wines on the motorway.
Wine consumption has been steadily decreasing in France and across the world in recent years, but supply has remained strong. That has led to an oversupply crisis, which has pushed down prices and threatened the livelihoods of grape growers.
The issue is by no means confined to France. Last month, a retailer in Melbourne hit headlines by selling bottles of Chardonnay for A$1 (£0.51), which was cheaper than water and milk, as Australia grapples with a wine glut.
However, French farmers are renowned for mounting vehement protests, and the trend may continue until the oversupply issue eases.
