French To Rip Up Vineyards After Sales of Top Wines Plummet

The Telegraph ^ | June 11, 2005 | Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

[quidnunc]

France's top wine-growing regions are to rip up some 18,000 hectares of prestige vines in the biggest purge of the country's wine industry since the Phylloxera epidemic a century ago.

Faced with over-production and crumbling export sales, Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Loire valley are to slash output by paying farmers a lump sum to abandon their vineyards.

Global wine output of 270m hectolitres has surged ahead of consumption at 230m hl, creating a glut of red wine that has forced even Australia's market-savvy vineyards to leave grapes unpicked on the vine.

But France's wine industry has borne the brunt of the crisis as tastes change and new technology favours hotter, drier climates able to produce full-bodied and more reliable red wines at far lower cost, stripping mid-European latitudes of the competitive advantage they held for centuries.

The great French whites of Champagne, Chablis and Pouilly-Fuissé, among others, are holding up much better. There have been sharp cuts in output of French plonk, or "vin de table", prompting a spate of attacks on foreign wine imports by shadowy peasant "commando" units. The vino-terrorists have set fire to railway wagons, torched a station, and tipped 10,000 hl of Chilean wine on to the streets.

But this is the first time the elite brands have faced the shovel. Claret sales in Britain have plunged by 25pc over the last year alone, as consumers switch to New World wines across the price range. Global sales of Bordeaux are down 12pc by volume, and 22pc by value.

-snip-

[Paul Atreides]

C'est la vie

[ken21]

so sorry!

they'll be planting opium next.

[NCjim]

Faced with over-production and crumbling export sales, Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Loire valley are to slash output by paying farmers a lump sum to abandon their vineyards.

They should check with the folks here in North Carolina. Maybe it will work as well as paying tobacco farmers not to grow tobacco...

[Mark]

It's a good thing rhat nobody is boycotting French products! That would really sting.(/sarcasm)

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Oh, mais non, my leetle Frenchies!
Pardon us for our boycott, but eet ees not very nice to insult your friends in America. Maybee you tell Chirac to pay you for the wine you lost with his oil money, non?

HA.HA. HA. HA. HA.HA. AH HA!

I AM LAUGHING SO HARD AT THE CHIRAC FRENCHIES!!!!

[ken21]

i meant poppies to harvest for opium.

oh well.

early senility.

[TADSLOS]

France's top wine-growing regions are to rip up some 18,000 hectares of prestige vines in the biggest purge of the country's wine industry since the Phylloxera epidemic a century ago.

BWAHAHAHAHA! Ask 'em where their vines came from since then...

[clee1]

Sacre' bleu!

[acapesket]

Once again, we run, and hide our faces! I really feel badly for the actual "Francois"... there must be at least 130 of them left in the country!
They used to have such a proud history some many 12 milleniums ago, now they seem so "frenchified" that they'll roll for anyone or anything!
Beautiful country, proud heritage many years ago, What a shame!

[Guillermo]

Sounds like the US Gov't and it's outrageous payments to farmers.

Corporate Welfare at its finest.

[ArmoredCav]

A growing percentage of the frog population is Muslim- what does France expect of the no alcohol but mass murdering religion of peace?

[clintonh8r]

Let them grow cake....

[MikefromOhio]

Wine is fine, but liquor is quicker....

[mmercier]

>>> But France's wine industry has borne the brunt of the crisis...

Yes they have, and deservedly so. I have been known to drink wine under extreme social pressure. Never considered the origin of the wines, until the French whines about the second gulf war.

I still drink wines, under extreme social pressure, and the only thing I know about wine is I don't purchase French wines. Or any other French item for that matter, not that they make much of consequence that can compete here.

[A. Pole]

There have been sharp cuts in output of French plonk, or "vin de table",

New French (Muslims) do not dring much wine?

[longtermmemmory]

is it the glut or the fact that americans are abandoning french wine because it is french.

[quidnunc]

TADSLOS wrote: (France's top wine-growing regions are to rip up some 18,000 hectares of prestige vines in the biggest purge of the country's wine industry since the Phylloxera epidemic a century ago.) BWAHAHAHAHA! Ask 'em where their vines came from since then...

Actually, it was only the phylloxera-resistant rootstock which was American.

French grape varities were grafted onto that American rootstock.

[randita]

I used to buy a few bottles of French wine when I went to the wine store (state stores here in PA), but after France's betrayal of the U.S. after 9/11, I've just passed by the French section. It's overpriced anyhow.

Guess I'm not the only one.

[NavVet]

and candy is dandy, but sex don't rot your teeth.