Bye-Bye Bordeaux

Forbes ^ | May 9, 2005 | Brendan Coffey

[quidnunc]

The Lurton brothers are breaking into the U.S. market by abandoning French tradition. Uruguayan tannat, anyone?

Pity the French wine industry. Since entering the new century on a high with one of the most hyped Bordeaux vintages in two decades, nothing has gone its way. French wine consumption, while tops in the world, has slipped 10% since 1999, according to Vinexpo/ISWR. By 2008 look for it to fall another 7% as younger French drinkers switch to beer and spirits for their joie de vivre.

The export picture is ugly, too. There has been a three-year decline in sales in the U.S., France's second-biggest export market, partly because of the backlash to France's stance in the Iraq war. And the euro's strength has made bottles pricier for loyal drinkers elsewhere. To top it all off, Australia is grabbing market share.

"The competition is bigger and bigger, with a simple message. The French, we have a complex message," says François Lurton, of Jacques & François Lurton, a wine company in Varyes, France that he owns with his brother, Jacques. "In the U.S. a new generation of consumers has come to wine, and they are not educated enough to understand the complex message of European wine," he explains.

That complexity is represented by the wines made in Burgundy and Bordeaux, which operate under the AOC system (controlled appellations that are in reality brand cooperatives). Because of strict rules winemakers in the AOC system don't have the option of making vin de pays or vin de table wines, which are of a simpler style often favored by Americans. The system is also plagued by bad producers that are killing the image of AOCs. "The consumer accepts there are different brands from a region, but there are so many variations of quality that it has bred resistance and suspicion," says François.

-snip-

[Gritty]

The French produce a lot of whine with their wine.

[CobaltBlue]

Microbrew in a glass, if I can get it, preferably an IPA with Crassostrea virginica, which is the kind of oyster I prefer, although it's really too late in the year for them now.

Why are wine snobs such turds?

[GnL]

Why are wine snobs such turds?

Not sure. Oyster snobs are right up there, though.

[hosepipe]

[ The French, we have a complex message," says François Lurton, of Jacques & François Lurton... "In the U.S. a new generation of consumers has come to wine, and they are not educated enough to understand the complex message of European wine," he explains. ]

Being pathologically WRONG must be a French disease..
Maybe consuming French wine MAKES you stupid..
Its in the soil maybe..

BEWARE- buy Mexifornia wines..
It will make you LESS stupid.. almost as stupid as New York wines will make you but without the arrogance of either France or New York.. Australian wines will merely make you talk funny.. as will Chilean wines..