Rivers of wine flood streets of French city (PHOTOS)

a reply to: Lagomorphe

I always admire French looking after themselves. Even during the olden day ATC strikes, my dad would be furious and I'd argue they were looking after their livelihoods in the face of wage cuts. My ex's family owned a vineyard too and had struggled through a period when bad cork had screwed up a couple of seasons. I've an affinity with the French people and culture.

Nevertheless, the 90s and early 2000s saw more cheap wine from France than anywhere else. The Bulgarians caught up and apparently the Spanish have overtaken everyone. Are the current French protests because they're on the backside of market forces? Is it because they've lost the upper hand?

Genuinely interested

In France the sales of french wine has been shooting down the last few years. From what i have read, the biggest reasons are the french people have become more curious about foods and drink from elsewhere (as part of a general growth in consciousness/opening of mind that has been happening since internet came along) and more exigent about quality.


But a big reason is the complexity of the label classment (forgotten what you'd call that).
The way they are grouped and labelled cause the best to be mixed in with the worst. The consumer has little to help them choose in that.

René Renou, président du comité des vins et spiritueux de l'INAO, chargé des AOC et auteur d'un projet de réforme radical, annonce: « Si nous ne faisons pas le ménage nous-mêmes, le marché le fera à notre place (…). Le consommateur ne s'y retrouve pas, il faut regagner sa confiance et produire toujours de meilleurs vins »

Wiki source
Translation of part in bold- "If we do not clean this up (reform the present system ), the market will do it for us." Which is what is happening!

I haven't looked into the stats, but I will guess, based solely on what I observe around me, is that the population that is turning to the cheaper Spanish wines are NOT the higher classes. They continue to buy french wines.
It is largely the lower classes, turning to those bag-in-box and such, that have terribly low prices partly because they are produced in countries where the viticultors are taxed less, and have much less limits on the chemicals and methods they can use!

The fruit from Spain too, is much cheaper for this reason. It is all full of chemicals and pesticides that are illegal to use in this country...

This is a mere warning to the French to go back to Water. Stop wasting water into production of fire.

Coming from 1st hand experience with family having a vineyard here in France for over 130 years, it's not about the French in general becoming more curious about other consummables but more about them looking at pricing to start with, as sadly many smaller vineyards have had to up their prices due to the natural disasters that have occured over the past couple of years meaning there is a smaller grape yield.

My in-laws lost over 70 percent of their annual production 3 times in 3 years due to either severe freezing or lack of sunshine or rain... Brussels did not help them one bit but decided to favorize foreign wine... all in the name of FAIR TRADE.

Super and Hypermarkets are not helping too with their knocking down of prices...

Luckily our family vineyard has a darned good reputation when it comes to quality of our produce and our customers (who are very faithful and understand this). Each year we have an open day at the cellar over 3 days and have over (last count) 900 visitors coming to taste our wines and also at the same time enjoying a free traditional meal with live music... Marketing is also a key issue.

Sadly, one day in a not too distant future, French wine will become obsolete or just too expensive (even the crappy cheap Beajolais and Bordeaux cheapies for Tourists) due to greed.

Sadly

Lag




a reply to: Bluesma

a reply to: Lagomorphe

Okay. I have had a producer tell me that just thirty years ago, the foreign wines weren't bought by the french people too much, even though they were coming onto the store shelves, just because the people were resistant to trying them. They remained loyal to what they were accustomed to traditionally, no matter what the prices.

I think she mean to to refer to the difficulty accepting change that is part of the french culture...Many french people have seen the french mentality change in the last 20 years, becoming more open to novelty. Some think it was internet, and just being exposed to so much more that sparked that, and that the market simply responded to it (with those discount stores like LIDL, that have not only lower prices, but brands unfamiliar and often from other countries).

Perhaps you are right and it was the other way around- the market changed the people. But I remain more sceptical of that idea just because we saw an opening of minds happening in so many different parts of the globe, due to internet exposure!

But I am aware of the troubles they've had due to weather- this year we went to the Loire valley, and the wineries had just faced devastation because of that big freeze. They were busy cleaning up, and facing that there would be no recolte for this year. It was a catastrophy.

I see the problems, but I admit I remain deeply american and capitalistic perhaps, in thought- thinking markets respond to demands, and we have no other choice but go with the flow! I have trouble embracing the traditional expectation in France that if any producers are no longer able to sell their produce, the government must step in and pay them instead.
The french seem to have this idea that the government has that magic bottomless trunk of money, that they just need to "deblock" and let the gold flow!

I can't handle more taxes taken off our heads now, they're getting more than half our income already. When my husbands job didn't make enough, he changed careers. Went back to school, started from zero. That is how it is for most people. I admit to feeling less empathy for the families with an inherited tradition and lands...
Why don't they get creative and find a way to adapt and change with the environment and present conditions?

In California, when conditions wiped out the vines, what did they do? They changed- they adopted the vines from here! French vines saved their butts. But they opened to the idea of changing it all and asked for them.

Is there no way they could consider making changes of some sort, that might help the situation? (that is not a rhetorical question, it is a sincere curiosity. )

The more taxes we have to pay on french wines, to finance the indemnities for the wineries, the more people will turn towards the cheaper, (less taxed) spanish wines!

But in any case, the problem of the labelling, apparently, is a real one, which will have to be dealt with at some point.

You came to the Loire Valley and didn't let me know???

I live there... Chenonceaux

Not that many areas were hit by the big freeze in the Loire Valley apart from Chinon and surroundings.

Kindest respects

Lag
a reply to: Bluesma