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Sinister Events in the Decline of the French Wine Industry


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[quote user="jxedwards"]

Just read this on the BEEB.

Not good

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6759953.stm

[/quote]

Nothing sinister there.  It is long-hand for 'Inefficient french industry expects government protection in the market place, in order that it can continue to pretend it is selling a superior item that nobody else in the world can produce quite like them'....simple really.  Why protect them, the market will decide the appropriate price surely.

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Most of the propaganda by the viticulteurs is nonsense. The EU is currently offering large cash handouts to grub up their vines. They think protectionism and subsidy will pay better. Good quality wine always attracts a premium. Midi wines mostly should be turned into ethanol.
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One of the core problems with CAP (Common Agriculteral Policy) is that it encouraged inefficiency, since by its nature, IBAP (The Intervention Board for Agricultural Produce) would buy up over-supply at an uneconomic price.

Like the butter mountain and the beef mountain, the EU winelake needs emptying! Into the sea!

Most of the produce from the Roussillon is, as Logan says, suitable only for ethanol.

The vineyards which have used second and third generation American and Australian techniques for successful oneology in arid zones now command premium prices.

The vast majority don't: it has always been used for making vermouth, etc,  in conjunction with its Italian cousins.

 

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Not surprised. The local wine co-op is only geared towards producing cheap wine to sell to the French. NONE of the local wine Domaines have a website to market their wine either in France or abroad, with the exception of the domaine beside us that shares our name. And that was because the 'other half' talked them into having one...and they are attracting many more drive-by customers into their cave  these days as people have found them online. The local Mairie has a tourist page for tourists...in French only... ( of course, the only tourists that matter are the French one's...right?). And despite our offer to translate their page into Spanish, English and German (the Dutch that come here all speak English), they seem to think that only French tourists matter. So no go with regards to non-French tourism.

The local French are not buying the local wine. Plain and simple. A Co-Op 13 km's away has closed down. The Co-Op 3 km's the other way is battling, and the Co-Op from our own village is ready to close business. Why? because the French are so bad at marketing outside of France. They will not accept that advertising online is a good idea, and they particularly object to advertising their product in English. If the locals do not buy, who else do they sell to?. A British family has bought a Domaine locally and are producing, and selling via the internet, their wine to the American market...for more than 5 to 10 times what the local French are charging for their wines. Our neighbour told us he could never sell his wine for more that 3 euros a bottle as the locals could not afford it. The Brits up the road are doing just, selling to non-French, and are cleaning up.

Explaining to our neighbour that ,to make money, he needs to market further than 'down the road 'seems to astound him. After, as he put it, he and other local Domaine owners are just carrying on the family business. Producing cheap local wine for the local people...but they are slowly going out of business doing it.

 

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