[ml/nj]

French drinkers switch to beer and spirits for their joie de vivre.

This is becasue I am outbidding them for their wine.

ML/NJ

[RKV]

""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." Froggy conveniently doesn't remember a certain blind tasting sometimes referred to as "the judgement of Paris" where a group of American wines trounced their French competition. For my part, I suggest this guy try a bottle of Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir grown about 30 miles up 101. Even an off year is better than 95% of all the Rhone Valley wine ever produced - and costs less. Don't understand complex message my butt.

[underdognewsgrl]

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.

Oh. my. Gawd. You can't make this stuff up!

Good luck, Francois, you're going to need it.

[ClearCase_guy]

"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.

We Americans always seem to have trouble with complexity or nuance. Just ask Monsieur Jean Kerry.

[Professional Engineer]

Poor Pierre. BWAHAHAHAHA

[concentric circles]

There's a related story here:

Fear in Southern France
A wine region finds itself in crisis, by Kim Marcus
Wine Spectator, April 25, 2005

On a recent trip to some of the top winemaking regions of southern France—Languedoc, Roussillon and the southwestern districts of Madiran and Cahors—I noticed a palpable sense of unease, if not downright fear, among many French vintners.

It wasn't until I was high in the rugged northern reaches of the Languedoc, where hearty Syrah-based blends reign supreme, that I realized that it was more serious than the usual concerns about the weather. I was at Château Ste.-Eulalie in the La Livinière cru of the Minervois appellation. Co-owner Isabelle Coustal makes some of the best reds in the region, but it's been difficult over the years for her to find and hold onto a reliable importer for the U.S. market, a quandary she shares with many an aspiring French vintner.

Coustal is hardworking, dedicated and sincere. We've profiled her as one of the leading members of France's new generation of vintners ("France's New Faces," Sept. 30, 2003). She is a mother of three, and her husband, Laurent, works as a winemaker in Bordeaux, which lies a three-hour drive away, to help pay the mortgage on the property. He comes home for long weekends.

Coustal was moving cases of wine with a forklift when I arrived. She recognized me and was pleased to pour her wines. But first I asked her how things were going. "La crise," she responded simply and directly, almost in a tone of resignation. I was taken aback for a moment, but Coustal's report of crisis was echoed throughout my journey, and I soon realized that her words were reflective of the dire straits that many French vintners face today. A mixture of economic, political and cultural currents is converging to put dark clouds on their horizon.

As I went from winery to winery, the vignerons would most often address their problems themselves by asking me the questions first. During a visit to the famed Madiran estate of Alain Brumont, both the winemakers and the marketers were precise in their queries. What are people drinking in the United States, and are they drinking more? What do Americans think about Australian wines? Are California wines selling well in the United States? How is the American economy doing? The French may be looking more to the outside world at this point because wine on the domestic front is under siege from a variety of sources.

The French government has really cracked down on drinking and driving, as well as speeding. I myself was pulled over in a random check in Cahors (I don't drink and drive and was politely told to continue on my way). The accepted blood alcohol content in France is .05, appreciably lower than the .08 standard in force in the United States. Vintners say there has been a noticeable drop in wine consumption, especially in restaurants; from my own observations, half-bottles shared between two or more people were much more common than full bottles. In addition, young people in France are opting more and more for beer and carbonated beverages over wine, indicating a future of even lower French domestic wine consumption.

French vintners also face arcane government-sanctioned winemaking rules that increasingly hobble them in the highly competitive international wine marketplace. This is nowhere more true than in the highly fragmented south, where winemaking traditions are young and vintners are still exploring which grapes work best in which soils.

On top of all this is the sheer absurdity and poor quality of many of the French vineyards, in the south and elsewhere. There are still too many low-quality grapes that in the best scenarios are distilled into alcohol to rid the market of their existence, and in the worst cases are made into plonk at cooperative wineries. Yet the vines remain planted because of subsidies and market supports, which act as a millstone around the necks of quality-oriented producers. "People cannot continue to produce wines that don't have a market," says Jean-Charles Cazes, who is heading up his family's new venture, L'Ostal Cazes, in the Minervois just down the hill from Coustal. "With great wines coming from Chile, South Africa and Australia, you cannot afford to make mediocre wines."

In March, explosives went off at Languedoc producer Domaine de la Baume in a move that was seen as a protest against the globalization of wine and its effects on local winegrowers (la Baume is owned by France's largest wine export). The Languedoc has always been a rebellious part of France, and protests by the region's winegrowers are steeped in the history of the region. But the tides of history are running against the mediocre wines in France, and elsewhere. I only hope that vintners such as Coustal and other quality producers will be able to survive the turmoil and changes that lie ahead.

[Servant of the 9]

The French produce some fabulous wines, but due to subsidies all of the EU countries produce vast amounts of wine so bad it is unsalable even to winos.

So9

[skinkinthegrass]

"The competition is bigger and bigger, with a simple message. The French, we have a complex message"..."they (the US) are not educated enough to understand the complex message of European wine,"

??? ..Whats' so complex? If the "Aussies" are making/marketing a better product, what's so complex...and insulting the U.S. Consumers can't help either...

[Calusa]

I don't think the new Islamic majority overlords in France care much for wine. Sharia anyone?

[bwteim]

SNIP FROM
http://www.italystl.com/ra/2001.htm

"French domestic wine consumption has dropped to historic lows, with the country drinking half as much wine per capita as it did in 1960, partially due to an aggressive campaign against drunk driving.
SNIP
with consumption headed due south, French winemakers, more comfortable basking in tradition than questioning it, are rethinking the Rules governing how they Make and Name their wines, the Grapes they grow and How they are grown.

SNIP

The French have finally come to the late realization that "We can't
anymore tell the nice wine story".

[Conservative Goddess]

I bid you "CHEERS" with a glass of California Cabernet......

[NautiNurse]

ping

[quantim]

Click to be added!

Thanks, NN.  Wine news ping.

[1Old Pro]

I refuse to drink French wine. Too many fantastic other wines to choose from.

[Sthitch]

All of the hyperbole aside, I believe that the problem the French are having could be solved with a quick lesson in economics. The French have not seemed to learned about laws of supply and demand. The market is still saturated with '01 and '02 Bordeaux's at unsellable prices. So what do the fine wine makers (and I do believe that they make very fine wines) do? They release the mediocre '03 at a significant premium over previous vintages. It would be understandable if '03 were another 2000 or '82, but it was not. It was a serviceable, but forgettable year for Bordeaux's.
French wine makers do not realize that in the rest of the world they are quickly losing market share to the Aussie's, Americans, and Spanish. Why? Because they never see these wines in their local markets. They exclude all but a few foreign wines from their shelves. If the French were allowed access to the wines from around the world, they would see what else is available, and the French wine makers would be forced to compete. Now they still sell enough on their wines in the closed markets of France so that every bottle sold outside of the country is profit.

[discostu]

Wine has a message? Dude if your wine is talking to you it's definitely time to join AA.

[small voice in the wilderness]

and they are not educated enough to understand the complex message of European wine," he explains.

Maybe. But we ARE educated enough to understand the mad rantings of Chirac and a totally unwarranted bitch slap toward the United States and especially our military. It's a complex message of European WHINEs that we are rejecting. Put a cork in it, France.

[Tunehead54]

The funniest thing in this whole article and every post so far is that the word "boycott" is absent. I have had my hands on a nice french brie several times and having tried American and Canadian versions ALMOST bought one - but then I think of how many lives could have been saved if the world presented a united front against Iraq. No Brie, no Veuve Cliquot champagne - its tough but you do what you have to do.

---

;-)

---

I like seeing our boycott having a serious effect and they still haven't a clue. ;-)

[Gritty]

The French produce a lot of whine with their wine.

[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..