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.

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[Tax-chick]

My husband doesn't care for Chilean reds. It's been years since we had anything French - once in a while we'd get a bottle from my cousin, the airline pilot.