page_title: Winemaking cooperative
section_title: France
hierarchical_section_title: Winemaking cooperative / France
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Maraussan (Hérault) - la cave cooperative vinicole.
context_page_description: A winemaking cooperative is an agricultural cooperative which is involved in winemaking, and which in similarity to other cooperatives is owned by its members. The members in a winemaking cooperative are usually vineyard owners, who deliver grapes to the cooperative, which is involved in production of wine from the grapes and the subsequent marketing activities.
  Winemaking cooperatives are responsible for a significant proportion of the total wine production in many major wine-producing countries, including most of the classical European wine countries, but their importance varies much between different wine regions within these countries. Cooperatives tend to be more important in regions where the wine’s selling price is relatively low and average size of vineyard holdings is small.
  While some winemaking cooperatives were established in the 19th century, the majority were established in the early 1930s following the Great Depression.
context_section_description: In France, winemaking cooperatives are typically called caves coopératives, and produce more than half the total amount of French wine. The first winemaking cooperative was established in Alsace in 1895, although at this time Alsace was part of the German Empire rather than France. Members of French winemaking cooperatives own more than half the total French vineyard surface. The caves have their greatest strength on the Vin de pays level, where they are responsible for about three-quarter of the production. They have been involved in the large-scale switch over of the French wine production from the lower Vin de table category to Vin de pays. Many cooperatives also produce an impressive range of Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) wine.
  The total number of French winemaking cooperatives was over 850 in the early 2000s, with an average membership of 160 per cooperative in the 1990s. Cooperatives are particularly strong in Languedoc, Roussillon, Rhône, Provence and Corsica. Some of the more notable cooperatives are also found in Alsace and Chablis.
caption: The winemaking cooperative in Maraussan in the Languedoc region is one of France's oldest.
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