French winemakers spill Spanish wine

A group of 150 French winemakers stopped five trucks carrying wine from Spain into France near Perpignan and emptied their tanks of 70,000 litres of wine onto the motorway to protest about imports of Spanish wine. Protesters claim the provenance of wines entering France in tankers is not being verified and that the Spanish wine is has not been produced in accordance with European regulations. Graffiti was scrawled on the side of Spanish trucks which read 'wine not compliant'.

Tensions have been mounting between French and Spanish producers after figures confirmed that France is now the biggest buyer of Spanish wine, purchasing 580 million litres in 2014. After a bumper 2014 harvest Spain became the world's biggest producer in 2014 overtaking France and Italy, producing 51 million hectolitres of wine, but in 2015 Italy overtook Spain, as did France, as Spain's production dropped to 36.7 million hectolitres.