Posted on 07/02/2005 5:47:22 PM PDT by 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-
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
>> They will rue the day.
Because me and the wife do put a dent in global wine inventory.
...heavy frost...did they at least try to make Ice Wine with the crops??
I would pay very good money for those 7 wine bottles, are those real, and where can I buy a set?
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
I have not had French wine in nearly 3 years. Screw the French!!
tant piss...
Get used to it Frogs, the muslims don't drink wine...
Not if I can help it, but for taste price is no object. I get hooked on a wine for about 2-3 months at a time and then move on. My wife loves champagne and only tastes my wines so it ALL FOR ME!! LOL! I'll try the Black Opal and the Thirsty Lizard varieties and go from there. Thank you for your input, Fellow FReeper.
Oh please. A little radiation never hurt anybody.
Aaahhh, the almond champagne...
Decanting Champagne into anything but a flute is barbaric.
Yes, very good, but I have a secret, instead of the expensoive almond champagne, a Grocery Store called Albertson's sells a cheap name that is the same exact stuff.
Funny, they just brand it and everyone thinks its theirs....
It comes from the same place.
Welcome to Planet Earth.
I buy a lot of wine but haven't bought a French bottle in years. Mostly I buy from Italy and Australia.
They've been providing aid and comfort to our enemies, duh.
I buy ALOT of wine, most of which come from Italy, California, Washington, Oregon, Chile, Argentina, and Spain. When I went to Paris two weeks ago, I broke down and bought three bottles. Of those three, only a red from Corsica, made from the Niellucciu grape, was worth the price paid, which in that case was 9 Euro.
heh heh heh. Now thats one fine looking Frenchie. Poor frogs have had to be associated with them for so long. I wonder if general George S. Patton Jr. was still alive if he would so much admire the French!
I was under that cloud of crap while being stationed in Germany. Should I be worried about this third arm growing out of my forehead?
Transplants. ;--)
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