France Mourns As It Destroys Fine Wine

The Sunday Times ^ | July 3, 2005 | Nicola Smith and Matthew Campbell

[quidnunc]

They used to uncork their best bottles for festivals on July 14, but French wine growers such as Bernard Farges have little to celebrate next week. Far from evoking the triumphant storming of the Bastille, the date makes him and other bordeaux vignerons queasy.

“I feel sick to the heart,” said Farges, from Mauriac. The source of his melancholy is a European Union-funded process in which some of the quality red wine he produces will be distilled into undrinkable ethanol for use as factory fuel. The deadline for participating in the scheme is Bastille Day, a cruel irony. Farges has already sent in his forms.

It may seem heinous to any enthusiastic bordeaux drinker, but the EU has pledged £100m under the common agricultural policy to turn 670m bottles of French and Spanish wine into industrial alcohol to help reduce a surplus caused by competition from the New World.

This is not the first year in which plonk has been sold to industrial distillers, but never before have quality wines protected by the appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC) label been subjected to such indignity. Some 200m bottles that might have graced the dining table are destined to become factory chemicals this year.

The idea is to help to prop up a slumping market for French wine but the EU’s “crisis financing” of the process is being cited as an example of the profligacy of a system that Tony Blair wants to reform but which the French are fighting to keep.

Farges, 40, produces a “very drinkable” 350,000 litres of quality AOC-labelled bordeaux that is normally sold to restaurants and cafes. This year, however, some 20,000 litres of it — about 26,000 bottles — will go to the distillers.

-snip-

[Tunehead54]

Only champagne and the highest quality bordeaux, burgundy and loire wines have been unaffected by the worst crisis for the industry since the phylloxera disease killed off a large portion of the country’s vines a century ago.

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Why can't they just drop their prices to become more competitive? I'm still boycotting all things fraunch except Michelin tires (sorry) - I still think they're deluding themselves if they think their drop in market share is due to anything other than their anti-American stance in the UN and Iraq war. ;-)

[bill1952]

Fellow Freepers, there is a Club Med 6 miles from my house in Port Saint Lucie.
It was always amusing to drive the Ferrari there and wach their puzzlement when you asked for Valet service. - They have none, and from what I saw, they don't know what it means. Lots of laughs.

They have a very good buffet, which includes unlimited tap beer and unlimited bottles of wine (that you just grab from a reach in cooler) for $20.

Also included there is a somewhat hokey French entertainment series in the auditorium, if you wish to attend after you eat.

If you can still stand after all the alcohol you can drink.

I have not been there since the whole Iraq/France thing (I will never return) and I would crawl over broken glass to buy American or Australian wine.

French wine? What is that? - Hey France. Can you hear me?

[Tax-chick]

Australian reds are excellent, and often lower priced than comparable California wines. (Although when I checked the bottle, it turns out my current glass is from California :-).

Lindemann's is a good winery; we love their Shiraz-Cabernet blend. Yellow Tail and Little Penguin are inexpensive and predictably tasty.

[small voice in the wilderness]

July 14 sounds like a great day to open a bottle of David Bruce Pinor Noir, grill a nice New York Strip, and celebrate the second fall of France.

[Sonar5]

<------ errr.. Marks off Thursday the 14th as Steak day...

[ml/nj]

The source of his melancholy is a European Union-funded process in which some of the quality red wine he produces will be distilled into undrinkable ethanol for use as factory fuel.

If this isn't an example of bureaucracy gone mad nothing is. Those of you who experience shadenfreude because this is happening to some Frenchman won't be so gleeful when our Washington elite decide to follow the enlightened EU example here.

ML/NJ

[Tax-chick]

And "Black Opal" and "Thirsty Lizard" are good. We shop in the "under $12 for 1.5L" group. There are some really prime Australian wines if you're paying more :-).

[The Great RJ]

Another failure of French and EU socialism. Price fixing and tariff wars lead by the EU have killed the market for French wine. Free markets work and governments don't.

[Brilliant]

The French are destroying their own wine industry with socialism.

[txhurl]

by the worst crisis for the industry since the phylloxera disease killed off a large portion of the country’s vines a century ago.

Interestingly, a Dr. Munsen used Texas vines as graftstock for the 500-year old French varietals, saving their sorry asses from phylloxera in 1902.

[ncountylee]

Here's to you Jacques, many happy returns.

[Carry_Okie]

They've got a lot of nerve to call the bulk of French viticulture "fine wine."

[Carry_Okie]

I live in Temecula, Ca. and all I buy is the Local wine we produce right here in my little wine valley.

Great pinot. Lousy zin. JMO

[Sonar5]

zin is for sissies.... lol JMO. ;-)

[wrathof59]

"The source of his melancholy is a European Union-funded process in which some of the quality red wine he produces will be distilled into undrinkable ethanol for use as factory fuel"

That's the funniest item I've read all week!

"Screw France, they can piss all the wine they want, I hope their Grapes rot on the vines..."

Actually all the grape vines in France are descendents from California vines, shipped to France in the early 20th century after France lost their entire vineyard to a heavy frost. Just a bit of trivia.

[StoneGiant]

Yet another Frenchman surrenders without a fight.

 

I understand, however, that they're keeping the other traditional wines protected from socialist intervention.

Which is somewhat ironic, considering how much they're revered by French socialists....

[kaehurowing]

Keep the boycott going!

[mmercier]

How appropriate is this note...?

As I let my Hardys Nottage Hill Merlot (south Eastern Australia) breathe for a moment or two.

Their Shairaz Cabernet is fine wine too.

Let the french twist in the wind and burn their wine for heat, for all I care.

They will rue the day.

[Sonar5]

Well, can we foreclose on them instead and get them back.

Or even easier, just threaten to bring them back, and france will surrender them, rip them from the ground, deliver them, say thank you to us for taking them back, and then bend over as they usually do.

Well, it's a thought.

[Jagman]

geez, from the responses on this thread, you'd think the French did something really horrible to US...