[Steely Tom]

Efforts to shore up the European wine industry by tearing out thousands of acres of vineyards and scrapping some subsidies have set the stage for a fierce debate Wednesday as Europeans contemplate the cost of their love affair with the grape.

Apparantly this sentence makes sense to the people who work at the New York Times. LOL.

[bert]

The proosal would be the definition of “half measure”

[FormerACLUmember]

Why is French wine so ridiculously over-priced, if the country is drowning in excess wine production?

Must be the magic of socialism at work here.

[nyyankeefan]

why buy french wine???

2 buck chuck just won another wine tasting award!!!!

[Porterville]

God, europe is such a waste of earth

[leda]

i’ll lend a hand by taking care of the surplus eiswein for germany ;)

[Cowboy Bob]

The Western Europeans should try to promote wine consumption in Russia and Ukraine. The two countries, combines, have a population of 200 million. The consumption in these countries is about 1 liter per capital annually. In Western Europe, the consumption is about 9-12 liters par capita (speaking from memory).

By doubling the consumption in Ukraine and Russia from 1 to 2 liters per capita (still very low by European standards), the Wine glut in the West would disappear.

The Russian are getting away from the hard liquor. Vodka sale have been falling, while beer sales had been increasing at a rate of 30% annually in the first half of this decade.

Russia and Ukraine do have a wine industry, but it is not of very high caliber, and can only satisfy 30% of current demand.