Free Republic

BORDEAUX Something was missing from the country's largest wine fair here last week, and it was not just the air conditioning in one of the exhibition halls (where temperatures rose so high, corks popped). The usual contingent of American wine merchants were mostly absent, confirming to many in the trade fair's bottle-filled booths that American ill will over France's opposition to the war in Iraq has bruised more than egos. French wine exports to the United States, which was once French winemakers' most promising market and is now one of their greatest competitors, are going down the drain. "It's clear...