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.
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(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Did they send us a thank you note? I didn't think so! ;-)
Naw, it's just hard to pass inflection through text.
So you're saying I should retire the beer-bong for champagne drinking purposes?
Just look for it among the folks who didn't write back to you.
And me of course
Never did like the French stuff, maybe the snootiness of their attitude during my one visit to Paris carried over. Who cares? The Germans have good wine, as do we and many others.
But that isn't the point here...
The French have been hit hard by their political action, and it continues to hurt because of their politics.
Given a huge hit in the market by whatever, an American company would cut prices on the remaining inventory, flood the market with CHEAP product and remind the consumer just they they enjoyed it in the first place!
GM has a similar problem (not the causes, the problem) and has just enjoyed a 19 year record sales month by cutting prices. No profits today, but inventory is down and in a year or three many will trade in good cars for new from the same company (if in fact the are indeed good).
France is Socialist, and the solutions are Socialist, and the results will be Socialist.
(s)france makes wine?(/s)
I drank a wonderful South African red wine last night. It is called “Two Oceans” and the grape used is Shiraz. It is not too dry, but not sweat. For me, it was just right. The price was just right too.
Further, this Two Oceans wine was very smooth in that it didn’t pucker up the taste buds like some wines do.
"I can hear the 2 Senators from Massachusetts sobbing from here.
Aw, I just think they're drunk--on sterno and anti-freeze, probably.
"Oh, that's right, they don't have any war machines."
That includes an army with backbone, right?
"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."
Some of our Washington elite HAVE decided to follow the enlightened EU example here. And We on FR have decided to fight them on it. One of the elitists just lost the national election for president, and the another one is looking for young babes (never mind that he's married). And one of these, I presume, by himself drinks enough French wine--any wine--to make up for those millions of bottles destined to become fuel.
"Should I be worried about this third arm growing out of my forehead?"
Uh, wrong thread. The gruesome appendage thread is somewhere else.
I'm crushed.
We like Lindemann's blended wines and Yellow Tail Shiraz as well. Chile's red wines are fine too; Santa Carolina's Reserva is a good label. Haven't bought any French since 2002 and don't intend to.
How do they say "backbone" in the Netherlands? NaDa
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