Wednesday, December 08, 2004
French Winemakers Whine
From the AP
France's wine industry, which employs about 500,000 people, says exports through Aug. 31 dropped by more than 5.5 percent in volume and 9.6 percent in value. Experts say Bordeaux was particularly hard hit, with foreign sales of its signature reds down 25 percent.
Vintners say overproduction worldwide, and especially in France — which harvested a bumper crop of grapes this year — has glutted a market where French wines already face fierce competition from vintages from California, Chile and Australia.
I used to enjoy some good cheap French table wines, but I started boycotting before the start of the war and I've never looked back.
"We are a sector in crisis," said Jean-Michel Lemetayer, the head of France's main farmer union, urging the state to bail out an industry awash in a sea of Chablis and Bordeaux.
This is so gratifying.
France's wine industry, which employs about 500,000 people, says exports through Aug. 31 dropped by more than 5.5 percent in volume and 9.6 percent in value. Experts say Bordeaux was particularly hard hit, with foreign sales of its signature reds down 25 percent.
Vintners say overproduction worldwide, and especially in France — which harvested a bumper crop of grapes this year — has glutted a market where French wines already face fierce competition from vintages from California, Chile and Australia.
I used to enjoy some good cheap French table wines, but I started boycotting before the start of the war and I've never looked back.
"We are a sector in crisis," said Jean-Michel Lemetayer, the head of France's main farmer union, urging the state to bail out an industry awash in a sea of Chablis and Bordeaux.
This is so gratifying.
papijoe 4:51 PM
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