Over the years I learned, through trial and error, that cheap French wine hardly ever compares favorably with wine from New Zealand and Australia at the same price point. More recently it's become true of Spanish wine, too.<p>I don't know whether it's because the French export their worst wine (or perhaps I just have no taste), but since the French themselves are drinking less of it, I can't help but think that complacency has crept in somewhere.
Those Spanish wines that are made to look French and fool the consumer with their lavender fields etc as described in the article... Winemakers are blaming the Spanish, but there's also the French grocery stores to blame: why put the French and Spanish wines on the same shelf? Are they trying to confuse consumers because the margins on Spanish wines are much higher ?<p>Here in the US, nearly all wine stores I've been to sorts wine per type (red, white, etc) for local wines and have a specific foreign section "France", "Australia", etc. Even regular grocery stores tend to do this too.<p>If groceries chains did this in France, consumers would then rarely buy the Spanish wines unintentionally.<p>I don't think the winemakers would have a hard time lobbying for at least forcing grocery stores to display foreign wines in a clearly labeled section.
A Coca-Cola Zero soft drink in a French restaurant in Paris (France) is typically 5 to 6 euro per 50 cl (even in "normal" restaurants, not in the Champs-Élysées nor the Eiffel Tower), while in Barcelona or Madrid (Spain) is 1.50 to 2 euro, being exactly the same product. So go figure with wine, or buying a lunch (2x-3x more expensive in Paris than in Madrid or Barcelona). In my opinion, that will be good for French people: they already do massive near-dumping with milk production because of their high productivity/efficiency, and they'll have to learn how to be efficient producing wine and fruits.
I only see nebulous claims of wines not being produced to French standards. Is there anything more specific? Maybe the French standards are wrong is Spanish originating wines are selling so well and even at similar price points.
> “We can produce the wine at lower cost because salaries are less,”<p>And also in many cases, because illegal immigrants, who work in these vineyards, are treated in such poor conditions, close to slavery, that salaries can not be matched without breaking labor laws.
This article highlights the real downside to progressive globalization and a major reason for the recent rise of populism (Trump, Brexit, etc). The populist message of "bringing back the good 'ol days" is an impossibility but the underlying economic frailty of large swaths of people is very real.<p>While typically a free market fan, I do believe the pendulum has swung too far towards globalism in the last couple of decades. In general, this has vastly improved the lives of millions of very poor families in developing nations - but at a significant cost to families like blue collar Americans, leaving millions feeling that they're being left behind by technological progress, foreign labor, and politics/media that increasingly focuses on the "glamorous" US coastal cities. This is a gross oversimplification of the myriad of intertwined issues but this is the general perception for a lot of people.<p>We'd better figure out how to address this perception and begin to work on tangible solutions soon or this type of violent response may only be the tip of the iceberg.
I worked in a wine shop for a while years ago. Occasional drinkers would always come in wanting French wine, but after trying Argentine malbecs or even American reds like those produced by Dave Phinney or say, K Syrah, would always prefer those over the few French wines they had tried.<p>Granted, this is all anecdotal, and I have had some great French wines (love that they are biodynamic as well for the most part), but to my eyes the wine market is really broadening. French wines just may not hold the mystique they once did.
<i>"We can produce the wine at lower cost because salaries are less," said Juan Corbalán García, who represents the Agri-Food Cooperatives in Brussels. "But that doesn’t mean we’re doing unfair competition."</i><p>Perfect example of a race to the bottom.
Interesting how long it took the article to get to reporting what was supposedly "unfair" about the competition. And then it was pretty vague -- i.e. Spanish wine doesn't have to be grown by French rules.<p>Presumably readers are supposed to assume the French rules are somehow necessary. But Spain and many other countries seem capable of producing good wine at different price points. Maybe the French just have the wrong rules?
A greater understanding of the process and supply chain that affects the products going into our body will be for the best. For any wine, if it was clear where the grapes are grown, and where the wine was made, it'd give me greater confidence in the product. This is especially true if it's a value-oriented bottle.
another interesting element of the wine trade across the eu was the ~2009 ruling on how rose could be produced<p>when i was working for a wine and spirits shop on the upper east side a controversial ruling was proposed in the eu(o)<p>it stated that rose wine, which was becoming a popular wine in the newish 'priced to drink' wine market, could subvert the costly precision of rose production, wherein for example one has to remove the skins at just the right time, with a simpler method of just mixing red and whites together<p>french wine producers were among the leaders in lobbying against the proposal<p>it seems france won that battle(i)<p>(o) <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/17/rose-wine-provence-france-eu" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/17/rose-wi...</a><p>(i) <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/eu-abandons-plan-to-allow-blended-rose-wine-1700039.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/...</a><p>.. rose=rosé ..
A piece of interesting trivia about the Languedoc region: its name literally means the place where people prononce "yes" as "oc" (well, "the 'oc' language"). It's as if Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas" were in a region named "the drawl zone"<p>Actually Occitan is now a dead language, and at the time it was current, nobody pronounced "yes" as "oui" yet either. But the name persists.