U.S. loses its taste for French wine

International Herald Tribune ^ | 06/30/03 | Craig S. Smith

[LibWhacker]

Italian and California wines are just as good, anyway. And if California doesn't get its head out of its behind soon, we can boycott it, too, as there is no shortage of good wines to be had from elsewhere in the world.

[Hop A Long Cassidy]

(Australian Wine Bump)

Hoppy

[lentulusgracchus]

Maybe we wine drinking/buying FREEPERs should make a thread and list our nonFrench favs; waddya think ?

I had to quit drinking Fontana Candida for a while: simplest Italian white plonk, but I loved it dearly. Just about any California zin from a fair-middling vintner (no, I don't mean anyone from Modesto) is a decent red. Plus, the experts think the California zins are either Hungarian berkavers or south Italian primitivo, both of them directly descended from the vines that made the legions invincible.

[pragmatic_asian]

"France is trying to repair the damage with a maladroit public relations campaign whose tagline is "Let's Fall In Love Again" and features a video in which the aging comedian Woody Allen talks about French kissing his young wife."

Should read "France is trying to repair the damage with a maladroit public relations campaign whose tagline is "Let's Fall In Love Again" and features a video in which the aging comedian Woody Allen talks about French kissing his young wife/daughter."

[nopardons]

Hey Hungarian wines are really great and they are on OUR side. The Hungarian berkavers, Bulls Blood, and Tokay ( the original of the " new " trend in ice wines and far less pricey, even for a 5 putash one ) are also good buys.

Italian wines are getting better shelf space ( finally ) and are also very good.

Did you watch the first installment of " CAESAR ". on TNT ? I did and liked it, even thought the Vercengeterix bit was a hatchet job and too short.

[lentulusgracchus]

Sorry, I don't / won't have cable. Enjoy the series, it sounds like a good one. Maybe it'll make its way to PBS or Fox late-nite eventually.

If anyone wants to do a hatchet job on Caesar, they might dwell on the tactics he used against the Usipetes and Tencteri (who would become the Franks someday). Or they might expand on the truly cluster____ed nature of his British adventure.

[nopardons]

The first one ( second and final installment on Monday @ 8:00 P.M. ) was historically pretty acurate and not badly done. I was very pleasantly surprised.

The hatchet job was performed on Sulla.

The hatchet job, on Caesar, just might come tomorrow. The coming attractions don't look promising. They've given VERY short shrift to the Gaulic Wars; no time to delve into your propositions at all. The second part looks as if it'll start with the crossing of the Rubicon. So much for all that.........

I don't watch much T.V. and when I do, it's usually cabel, but NOT ever TNT. LOL

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

French boycott bump!

I'm still guffawing over the fact that they've hired Woody Allen as their spokesman. Yeah, that's a real attractive picture - old lech French-kissing his young wife. Sure that's a real marketing coup for the Frenchies!

[noutopia]

Home made wine and good spring water is better than any of that frog sh1t.

[Frohickey]

I'd start drinking French wine, if the French Ambassador to the United States and Jacques Chirac put a short 30 second TV ad thanking the United States that they don't have to speak German.

[The KG9 Kid]

Let them market their wine in the Islamic world.

[noutopia]

Good one kid

[Tall_Texan]

Maybe France should do a better job of marketing their wares in Muslim countries, no?

[MinuteGal]

Well, this article gave a rundown on the French wine industry's production woes, its regulation woes, and its merchandising woes.

But nary a word from all those quoted about the real frogs on their backs....Monsieurs Chirac, Villepin and other assorted arrogant socialist commie French leaders who made the dumb moves that harmed their own citizens.

Being raised on wine since childhood apparently has french-fried too many little grey cells of the frog populace. According to polls, 70-80% of them supported Chirac's anti-Americanism. So, as Marie Antoinette was purported to say, let them drink Coke.

Leni

[AmericaUnited]

The Paris Tourism Office said it would decorate the Champs Elysées with stars and stripes on July 4 and that many hotels in the capital would celebrate the American holiday.

Screw yourselves. That is not going to cut it.

[hosepipe]

[ decorating the Chimps Elysées with stars and stripes on July 4 ]

is a little late.....

[capitan_refugio]

Moet & Chandon??? Forget it.
When I'm drinking champagne, it's Schramsberg (California) for me.

[lentulusgracchus]

When I'm drinking champagne, it's Schramsberg (California) for me.

Cook's and Korbel are fairly decent. Domaine Chandon is a French company but an American grape, only they put their nose in the air and won't call it "champagne" but "methode champenoise".

[q_an_a]

Add the boycott to other problems and you will see that the French must PAY AS YOU GO. If they want to have defence they must pay for it. If they want security they must pay for it. Want to have the good life you see in Ameircan tourists? You must pay for it.

It was so easy to stand up and act like socialism is the answer when you have markets in America the defender of your freedom. But when Russia became a US market instead of an enemy we started to find other partners. Oil from Russia, labor in the eastern bloc and votes in the UN. Tell the French to take a hike.

[Grampa Dave]

That was a slap in the face of those of us who are boycotting French Wines and French products.

Now, they are starting to realize how POed we are and how serious we are. Paying the left wing child molester, Allen, to chide us about our boycott was not very wise. Of course the superbly educated elite Frenchmen are so arrogant, they thought that it was great deal.