In 2022, after severe Spring weather attributed to climate change, the Ministry of Agriculture’s statistics agency, Agreste, estimated that production of wine would plunge 29% to about 33m hectolitres. It was much reported, so much so it has become the narrative.
Actual output at the end of 2022? 44m hectolitres. Almost all of the year on year fall is attributable to an acceleration in grubbing in 2021/22 and more wine being turned into industrial alcohol. Per hectare, French grape output is steady.
French farming decline is pinned on climate change and the claim made that it is the worst affected in the world for three simple reasons: to win more subsidies, to avoid addressing structural economic problems, and ignore the fact that France is becoming less French.
On that last point, the author points to “demographic” change for the increase in teetotalism in the last decade. It isn’t a change in average age, dependency ratios, life expectancy, family structures or birth rates. We can be much more specific. It is ethnic change, and with that a different culture. This is fundamental to understanding trends and planning French alcohol production over the next 30 years.
Last edited 1 year ago by Nell Clover
Nell Clover
1 year ago
In 2022, after severe Spring weather attributed to climate change, the Ministry of Agriculture’s statistics agency, Agreste, estimated that production of wine would plunge 29% to about 33m hectolitres. It was much reported, so much so it has become the narrative.
Actual output at the end of 2022? 44m hectolitres. Almost all of the year on year fall is attributable to an acceleration in grubbing in 2021/22 and more wine being turned into industrial alcohol. Per hectare, French grape output is steady.
French farming decline is pinned on climate change and the claim made that it is the worst affected in the world for three simple reasons: to win more subsidies, to avoid addressing structural economic problems, and ignore the fact that France is becoming less French.
On that last point, the author points to “demographic” change for the increase in teetotalism in the last decade. It isn’t a change in average age, dependency ratios, life expectancy, family structures or birth rates. We can be much more specific. It is ethnic change, and with that a different culture. This is fundamental to understanding trends and planning French alcohol production over the next 30 years.
Last edited 1 year ago by Nell Clover
Tony Reardon
1 year ago
In what world is a late frost evidence of “climate change”?
There are many cycles in climate, everything from yearly, 11 year, 250 years , 2K events, 4.2k events,Ice Ages with 10-15,000 warm periods and 100k+ cold periods, the Pleistocene itself( 2.6 M), cooling since late Cretaceous. What is ignored is that the change from fairly steady to warming( 1936 Desert Bowl in USA) or cooling can be very sudden over a few years. Over the last 18K years the Sahara has gone from grassland to desert to grassland to desert. At 7.9K years ago temperatures were 3.5 C warmer than today.5.9k years ago the drying of the Sahara caused human migration to Nile.
The Mini Ice age of about 1650- 1850 can be seen with all the Dutch pictures of people skating in winter.
The basis of life are plants and they like it warm, humid and high CO2. High CO2 promotes deeper roots which protects plant against drought. In early Cretaceous the CO2 was about 6-7 times higher than today. Satellite images over the last 40 years show greening of sub Saharan Africa.
Where a country is at the meeting point of say warm wet south westerly winds and cold dry northern to north easterly, there are will always be abrupt changes in weather, especially if we are entering a normal cold or dry period.
Over population of a land with little fertile soil impacted on Greece from 600BC and Ibn Khaldun wrote in 1400 how the lack of arab maintenance of irrigation systems led to desertification.
There have always been “unusual weather events”. When the Rhine almost went dry recently, a rock inscription was exposed that memorized a similar event 700 or so years ago.
There are many cycles in climate, everything from yearly, 11 year, 250 years , 2K events, 4.2k events,Ice Ages with 10-15,000 warm periods and 100k+ cold periods, the Pleistocene itself( 2.6 M), cooling since late Cretaceous. What is ignored is that the change from fairly steady to warming( 1936 Desert Bowl in USA) or cooling can be very sudden over a few years. Over the last 18K years the Sahara has gone from grassland to desert to grassland to desert. At 7.9K years ago temperatures were 3.5 C warmer than today.5.9k years ago the drying of the Sahara caused human migration to Nile.
The Mini Ice age of about 1650- 1850 can be seen with all the Dutch pictures of people skating in winter.
The basis of life are plants and they like it warm, humid and high CO2. High CO2 promotes deeper roots which protects plant against drought. In early Cretaceous the CO2 was about 6-7 times higher than today. Satellite images over the last 40 years show greening of sub Saharan Africa.
Where a country is at the meeting point of say warm wet south westerly winds and cold dry northern to north easterly, there are will always be abrupt changes in weather, especially if we are entering a normal cold or dry period.
Over population of a land with little fertile soil impacted on Greece from 600BC and Ibn Khaldun wrote in 1400 how the lack of arab maintenance of irrigation systems led to desertification.
There have always been “unusual weather events”. When the Rhine almost went dry recently, a rock inscription was exposed that memorized a similar event 700 or so years ago.
But it’s not just one late frost, it’s a whole raft of unusual weather events that is the problem.
Tony Reardon
1 year ago
In what world is a late frost evidence of “climate change”?
Linda Hutchinson
1 year ago
I’m still a fan of French wine; I find most New World red wines to be overly heavy and often with too high alchohol content; and, generally, the French whites are less acidic and are more aromatic. Of course, it does vary with the year and the vine-yard, but overall I still think that French is one of the best, so it is concerning what was said the article about the flavour and acidity changing. Having said all this, we have a vine-yard not far from us in Hampshire which produces excellent wine, although it is still at the upper end of our budget,. and this we do drink.
Hear! hear! I agree. Too many New World wines lack subtlety / finesse and are far too alcoholic. Some British wine is good…but just too pricey for every day drinking.
Hear! hear! I agree. Too many New World wines lack subtlety / finesse and are far too alcoholic. Some British wine is good…but just too pricey for every day drinking.
It depends on what you buy. A lot of new world wine is made for mass consumption, but there are exceptions like the Great Pinot noirs of New Zealand.
Linda Hutchinson
1 year ago
I’m still a fan of French wine; I find most New World red wines to be overly heavy and often with too high alchohol content; and, generally, the French whites are less acidic and are more aromatic. Of course, it does vary with the year and the vine-yard, but overall I still think that French is one of the best, so it is concerning what was said the article about the flavour and acidity changing. Having said all this, we have a vine-yard not far from us in Hampshire which produces excellent wine, although it is still at the upper end of our budget,. and this we do drink.
Jim Veenbaas
1 year ago
So what’s the issue? Climate change or reduced domestic consumption?
“By 2025, 100% of winemakers in Bordeaux will have some form of organic or sustainable certification, or be transitioning towards getting one.”
If anyone thinks this is the answer, the industry is in big trouble IMO. If you can’t maintain an industry on the value of the product itself, I don’t think slapping it with an organic label will help.
I don’t buy organic either, unless it’s cheaper than traditional products, which rarely happens. It seems to me though that wine is particularly unsuited to organic labels. It’s not like vegetable oil or carrots. IMO consumers buy either for taste or price. Organic wouldn’t satisfy either of those criteria.
I don’t buy organic either, unless it’s cheaper than traditional products, which rarely happens. It seems to me though that wine is particularly unsuited to organic labels. It’s not like vegetable oil or carrots. IMO consumers buy either for taste or price. Organic wouldn’t satisfy either of those criteria.
A key ingredient of a hangovers are sulphites, added to preserve. Show the winemakers skill by not adding them and have another glass. Why add chemicals when the grape provides all that is needed
A key ingredient of a hangovers are sulphites, added to preserve. Show the winemakers skill by not adding them and have another glass. Why add chemicals when the grape provides all that is needed
It all depends how many converts the “organic” cult can gain.
Jim Veenbaas
1 year ago
So what’s the issue? Climate change or reduced domestic consumption?
“By 2025, 100% of winemakers in Bordeaux will have some form of organic or sustainable certification, or be transitioning towards getting one.”
If anyone thinks this is the answer, the industry is in big trouble IMO. If you can’t maintain an industry on the value of the product itself, I don’t think slapping it with an organic label will help.
Steve Murray
1 year ago
I stopped buying French wine a long time ago, finding it over-priced and over-rated compared not only to New World wines but Italian too. A matter of taste, no doubt, but are those who’ve turned their back on French wine meant to go along with the snobbery and the “wine lake” which we subsidised for decades?
That the average Frenchman used to consume 150 litres a year is beyond parody, but it does help explain French philosophy. We’re still suffering from the hangover.
I was told years ago by Master of Wine that Southern French Wines offer some of the best value for money on the market and I tend to agree. Quality has greatly improved. Bordeaux and Burgundy produce excellent wines but are very expensive and below £20 a bottle one can buy better elsewhere. One supermarket has good offers and at times one can obtain discount of 25% if one buys six or more bottle which brings cost down to £5.25 for a good southern French wine.
I shall agree with you with on some points, but not all. It’s quite easy to ignore the snobbery: just ignore it.
As for overpriced, may I disagree? France is a large country, with many different wine producing regions. There’s plenty of reasonably priced, good drinking to be had; especially if, like me, the upper echelons of Bordeaux Cru Classe (or indeed anything drinkable from Burgundy) require you to flog the car or remortgage the house to buy a case. Indeed, Auberon Waugh laments how even a well-off man such as himself was unwilling to pay the price of ‘great wine’, due to speculative inflation, in Waugh on Wine. Perhaps the rather restrictive constraints of the AOC system come into play here. Plenty of very good wine can be found (not just in France) by exploring the declassified offerings or the less fashionable regions.
Italy? A different beast entirely and with as much snobbery attached; but many a great find to be had. My own preference with ‘old world’ plonk is to look to Portugal, Spain and the emerging wine-makers in Eastern Europe. I remain to be convinced overall with regard to the ‘New World’, but have found may enjoyable (and reasonably priced) bottles
Wine lake? A decades old joke – the farmers need to plant something else. Overproduction is nothing new.
As for the author’s note that the French youth prefer a beer to a glass of wine, my only thought is towards the UK’s own CAMRA. French beer (apart from from concoctions such as the wonderful Bière de Garde) is uniformly bland, yellow p!sswater (see also Italy and Spain). Surely time for an advocacy organisation to wean the youth off their industrially produced cooking lager and back to their own national drink? So, I used Googletranslate (my schooldays French long lost) and Society for the Preservation of French Wine, might be Société pour la Préservation des Vins de France. After a little digging around, I can find no such equivalent organisation.
French philosophy? No excusing it!
Now, time for a drink.
I will politely disagree regarding prices. At my normal price point of 25-35 USD, California wines don’t compare well. 2X that for comparable quality. Of course Italy and Spain have great regional wines at that price as do Oregon/Washington and Argentina, but if you prefer the merlot/cab blends as I do, Bordeaux is still the go-to region.
I was told years ago by Master of Wine that Southern French Wines offer some of the best value for money on the market and I tend to agree. Quality has greatly improved. Bordeaux and Burgundy produce excellent wines but are very expensive and below £20 a bottle one can buy better elsewhere. One supermarket has good offers and at times one can obtain discount of 25% if one buys six or more bottle which brings cost down to £5.25 for a good southern French wine.
I shall agree with you with on some points, but not all. It’s quite easy to ignore the snobbery: just ignore it.
As for overpriced, may I disagree? France is a large country, with many different wine producing regions. There’s plenty of reasonably priced, good drinking to be had; especially if, like me, the upper echelons of Bordeaux Cru Classe (or indeed anything drinkable from Burgundy) require you to flog the car or remortgage the house to buy a case. Indeed, Auberon Waugh laments how even a well-off man such as himself was unwilling to pay the price of ‘great wine’, due to speculative inflation, in Waugh on Wine. Perhaps the rather restrictive constraints of the AOC system come into play here. Plenty of very good wine can be found (not just in France) by exploring the declassified offerings or the less fashionable regions.
Italy? A different beast entirely and with as much snobbery attached; but many a great find to be had. My own preference with ‘old world’ plonk is to look to Portugal, Spain and the emerging wine-makers in Eastern Europe. I remain to be convinced overall with regard to the ‘New World’, but have found may enjoyable (and reasonably priced) bottles
Wine lake? A decades old joke – the farmers need to plant something else. Overproduction is nothing new.
As for the author’s note that the French youth prefer a beer to a glass of wine, my only thought is towards the UK’s own CAMRA. French beer (apart from from concoctions such as the wonderful Bière de Garde) is uniformly bland, yellow p!sswater (see also Italy and Spain). Surely time for an advocacy organisation to wean the youth off their industrially produced cooking lager and back to their own national drink? So, I used Googletranslate (my schooldays French long lost) and Society for the Preservation of French Wine, might be Société pour la Préservation des Vins de France. After a little digging around, I can find no such equivalent organisation.
French philosophy? No excusing it!
Now, time for a drink.
I will politely disagree regarding prices. At my normal price point of 25-35 USD, California wines don’t compare well. 2X that for comparable quality. Of course Italy and Spain have great regional wines at that price as do Oregon/Washington and Argentina, but if you prefer the merlot/cab blends as I do, Bordeaux is still the go-to region.
Steve Murray
1 year ago
I stopped buying French wine a long time ago, finding it over-priced and over-rated compared not only to New World wines but Italian too. A matter of taste, no doubt, but are those who’ve turned their back on French wine meant to go along with the snobbery and the “wine lake” which we subsidised for decades?
That the average Frenchman used to consume 150 litres a year is beyond parody, but it does help explain French philosophy. We’re still suffering from the hangover.
Vijay Kant
1 year ago
As a regular wine drinker, I would say that the main problem with French wines is not delivering value-for-money. Apart from the top wines, most French wines, in general, are not considered high quality compared to what is available from other parts of the world at the same price.
Vijay Kant
1 year ago
As a regular wine drinker, I would say that the main problem with French wines is not delivering value-for-money. Apart from the top wines, most French wines, in general, are not considered high quality compared to what is available from other parts of the world at the same price.
Christian Moon
1 year ago
Odd to omit all consideration of demographic collapse, and the grand remplacement of the Gallic population by ostensibly teetotal muslims.
Just remember that we used to own Bordeaux and you’ll be able to keep drinking it with a cleaner conscience. Some things are more important than Brexit !
Just remember that we used to own Bordeaux and you’ll be able to keep drinking it with a cleaner conscience. Some things are more important than Brexit !
Al N
1 year ago
Happily not missing French wine or any French products since 2016.
R Wright
1 year ago
How terrible. Oh well. I buy English wines like Chapel Down these days instead.
Yes how terrible. Oh well. I buy English wines like Buckfast,a ‘tonic’ wine ( apparently made by monks and drunk by drunks) instead.
R Wright
1 year ago
How terrible. Oh well. I buy English wines like Chapel Down these days instead.
Tony Price
1 year ago
Interesting that grubbing up costs €2,000 per hectare, but the farmers are seeking to be subsidised by €10,000!
Tony Price
1 year ago
Interesting that grubbing up costs €2,000 per hectare, but the farmers are seeking to be subsidised by €10,000!
Wim de Vriend
1 year ago
I’m confused. First we learn that “grubbing costs €2,000 per hectare, money Jean-François does not have”, which seems hard to believe; an initial expense of €4,000 would buy him two hectares for growing more profitable crops, or sell. But then we are informed that the cost of “pulling-up of vines in Bordeaux’s less prestigious areas [costs] €10,000 per hectare.” So which is it?
But maybe the author’s apparent failure to proof-read his piece reveals his real priority, which is to spread the gospel of Global Warming, or Climate Change, whichever fits the weather-anxieties of the day.
I think it would be 2k in grubbing costs for him to carry it out but wants 10k from the French government. I suppose it will come out of the CAP that has kept French farmers going for the past 5 decades
I think it would be 2k in grubbing costs for him to carry it out but wants 10k from the French government. I suppose it will come out of the CAP that has kept French farmers going for the past 5 decades
Wim de Vriend
1 year ago
I’m confused. First we learn that “grubbing costs €2,000 per hectare, money Jean-François does not have”, which seems hard to believe; an initial expense of €4,000 would buy him two hectares for growing more profitable crops, or sell. But then we are informed that the cost of “pulling-up of vines in Bordeaux’s less prestigious areas [costs] €10,000 per hectare.” So which is it?
But maybe the author’s apparent failure to proof-read his piece reveals his real priority, which is to spread the gospel of Global Warming, or Climate Change, whichever fits the weather-anxieties of the day.
Last edited 1 year ago by Wim de Vriend
Dermot O'Sullivan
1 year ago
This is a subject for lying down and avoiding (with a bottle of Cotes du Rhone preferably).
I’d sit upright to drink it. An headline such as “Man chokes to death on bottle of Cotes du Rhone” might just spell the end for that region.
Dermot O'Sullivan
1 year ago
This is a subject for lying down and avoiding (with a bottle of Cotes du Rhone preferably).
Andrew Horsman
1 year ago
“ The vignerons also have expectations of President Macron, a celebrated, self-avowed oenophile who drinks two glasses of wine a day, one with lunch and one with dinner.”
Correction: whatever their expectations of Macron may or may not be, they would be of a politician someone who once *claimed*, during an election campaign, in a conversation with a wine industry media outlet, to drink two glasses of wine a day.
“ The vignerons also have expectations of President Macron, a celebrated, self-avowed oenophile who drinks two glasses of wine a day, one with lunch and one with dinner.”
Correction: whatever their expectations of Macron may or may not be, they would be of a politician someone who once *claimed*, during an election campaign, in a conversation with a wine industry media outlet, to drink two glasses of wine a day.
We stopped drinking French wines a number of years ago for a simple reason – they aren’t very good anymore. Why should I pay several hundred dollars a bottle for a first growth Bordeaux when I can buy an equally good bottle of Spanish or Italian wine for substantially less?
0 0
1 year ago
We stopped drinking French wines a number of years ago for a simple reason – they aren’t very good anymore. Why should I pay several hundred dollars a bottle for a first growth Bordeaux when I can buy an equally good bottle of Spanish or Italian wine for substantially less?
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago
I am reading this as I am about to board a plane from Nice to Bordeaux, and what a tedious and dull place it is. Given that the bourgeois not least the petit bourgeois run everything in nu britn, what is the surprise?
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago
I am reading this as I am about to board a plane from Nice to Bordeaux, and what a tedious and dull place it is. Given that the bourgeois not least the petit bourgeois run everything in nu britn, what is the surprise?
Jacob Smith
1 year ago
I’m sure the solution is government subsidies all around, no? I mean, “because it is France”, of courseb.
Jacob Smith
1 year ago
I’m sure the solution is government subsidies all around, no? I mean, “because it is France”, of courseb.
Bryan Dale
1 year ago
I stopped reading when the climate change scam was invoked.
Bryan Dale
1 year ago
I stopped reading when the climate change scam was invoked.
The war on terroir?
First laugh of the day! Thanks
First laugh of the day! Thanks
The war on terroir?
In 2022, after severe Spring weather attributed to climate change, the Ministry of Agriculture’s statistics agency, Agreste, estimated that production of wine would plunge 29% to about 33m hectolitres. It was much reported, so much so it has become the narrative.
Actual output at the end of 2022? 44m hectolitres. Almost all of the year on year fall is attributable to an acceleration in grubbing in 2021/22 and more wine being turned into industrial alcohol. Per hectare, French grape output is steady.
French farming decline is pinned on climate change and the claim made that it is the worst affected in the world for three simple reasons: to win more subsidies, to avoid addressing structural economic problems, and ignore the fact that France is becoming less French.
On that last point, the author points to “demographic” change for the increase in teetotalism in the last decade. It isn’t a change in average age, dependency ratios, life expectancy, family structures or birth rates. We can be much more specific. It is ethnic change, and with that a different culture. This is fundamental to understanding trends and planning French alcohol production over the next 30 years.
In 2022, after severe Spring weather attributed to climate change, the Ministry of Agriculture’s statistics agency, Agreste, estimated that production of wine would plunge 29% to about 33m hectolitres. It was much reported, so much so it has become the narrative.
Actual output at the end of 2022? 44m hectolitres. Almost all of the year on year fall is attributable to an acceleration in grubbing in 2021/22 and more wine being turned into industrial alcohol. Per hectare, French grape output is steady.
French farming decline is pinned on climate change and the claim made that it is the worst affected in the world for three simple reasons: to win more subsidies, to avoid addressing structural economic problems, and ignore the fact that France is becoming less French.
On that last point, the author points to “demographic” change for the increase in teetotalism in the last decade. It isn’t a change in average age, dependency ratios, life expectancy, family structures or birth rates. We can be much more specific. It is ethnic change, and with that a different culture. This is fundamental to understanding trends and planning French alcohol production over the next 30 years.
But it’s not just one late frost, it’s a whole raft of unusual weather events that is the problem.
There are many cycles in climate, everything from yearly, 11 year, 250 years , 2K events, 4.2k events,Ice Ages with 10-15,000 warm periods and 100k+ cold periods, the Pleistocene itself( 2.6 M), cooling since late Cretaceous. What is ignored is that the change from fairly steady to warming( 1936 Desert Bowl in USA) or cooling can be very sudden over a few years. Over the last 18K years the Sahara has gone from grassland to desert to grassland to desert. At 7.9K years ago temperatures were 3.5 C warmer than today.5.9k years ago the drying of the Sahara caused human migration to Nile.
The Mini Ice age of about 1650- 1850 can be seen with all the Dutch pictures of people skating in winter.
The basis of life are plants and they like it warm, humid and high CO2. High CO2 promotes deeper roots which protects plant against drought. In early Cretaceous the CO2 was about 6-7 times higher than today. Satellite images over the last 40 years show greening of sub Saharan Africa.
Where a country is at the meeting point of say warm wet south westerly winds and cold dry northern to north easterly, there are will always be abrupt changes in weather, especially if we are entering a normal cold or dry period.
Over population of a land with little fertile soil impacted on Greece from 600BC and Ibn Khaldun wrote in 1400 how the lack of arab maintenance of irrigation systems led to desertification.
Time to go back to school.
That’s OK then, I must put my head back in the sand.
Time to go back to school.
That’s OK then, I must put my head back in the sand.
There have always been “unusual weather events”. When the Rhine almost went dry recently, a rock inscription was exposed that memorized a similar event 700 or so years ago.
Wasn’t that the Elbe (much further east) ?
Wasn’t that the Elbe (much further east) ?
There are many cycles in climate, everything from yearly, 11 year, 250 years , 2K events, 4.2k events,Ice Ages with 10-15,000 warm periods and 100k+ cold periods, the Pleistocene itself( 2.6 M), cooling since late Cretaceous. What is ignored is that the change from fairly steady to warming( 1936 Desert Bowl in USA) or cooling can be very sudden over a few years. Over the last 18K years the Sahara has gone from grassland to desert to grassland to desert. At 7.9K years ago temperatures were 3.5 C warmer than today.5.9k years ago the drying of the Sahara caused human migration to Nile.
The Mini Ice age of about 1650- 1850 can be seen with all the Dutch pictures of people skating in winter.
The basis of life are plants and they like it warm, humid and high CO2. High CO2 promotes deeper roots which protects plant against drought. In early Cretaceous the CO2 was about 6-7 times higher than today. Satellite images over the last 40 years show greening of sub Saharan Africa.
Where a country is at the meeting point of say warm wet south westerly winds and cold dry northern to north easterly, there are will always be abrupt changes in weather, especially if we are entering a normal cold or dry period.
Over population of a land with little fertile soil impacted on Greece from 600BC and Ibn Khaldun wrote in 1400 how the lack of arab maintenance of irrigation systems led to desertification.
There have always been “unusual weather events”. When the Rhine almost went dry recently, a rock inscription was exposed that memorized a similar event 700 or so years ago.
But it’s not just one late frost, it’s a whole raft of unusual weather events that is the problem.
I’m still a fan of French wine; I find most New World red wines to be overly heavy and often with too high alchohol content; and, generally, the French whites are less acidic and are more aromatic. Of course, it does vary with the year and the vine-yard, but overall I still think that French is one of the best, so it is concerning what was said the article about the flavour and acidity changing. Having said all this, we have a vine-yard not far from us in Hampshire which produces excellent wine, although it is still at the upper end of our budget,. and this we do drink.
Hear! hear! I agree. Too many New World wines lack subtlety / finesse and are far too alcoholic. Some British wine is good…but just too pricey for every day drinking.
It depends on what you buy. A lot of new world wine is made for mass consumption, but there are exceptions like the Great Pinot noirs of New Zealand.
Hear! hear! I agree. Too many New World wines lack subtlety / finesse and are far too alcoholic. Some British wine is good…but just too pricey for every day drinking.
It depends on what you buy. A lot of new world wine is made for mass consumption, but there are exceptions like the Great Pinot noirs of New Zealand.
I’m still a fan of French wine; I find most New World red wines to be overly heavy and often with too high alchohol content; and, generally, the French whites are less acidic and are more aromatic. Of course, it does vary with the year and the vine-yard, but overall I still think that French is one of the best, so it is concerning what was said the article about the flavour and acidity changing. Having said all this, we have a vine-yard not far from us in Hampshire which produces excellent wine, although it is still at the upper end of our budget,. and this we do drink.
So what’s the issue? Climate change or reduced domestic consumption?
“By 2025, 100% of winemakers in Bordeaux will have some form of organic or sustainable certification, or be transitioning towards getting one.”
If anyone thinks this is the answer, the industry is in big trouble IMO. If you can’t maintain an industry on the value of the product itself, I don’t think slapping it with an organic label will help.
As a rule, I don’t buy products labelled organic. I prefer to support businesses making good products rather than catering to the woke.
I don’t buy organic either, unless it’s cheaper than traditional products, which rarely happens. It seems to me though that wine is particularly unsuited to organic labels. It’s not like vegetable oil or carrots. IMO consumers buy either for taste or price. Organic wouldn’t satisfy either of those criteria.
I don’t buy organic either, unless it’s cheaper than traditional products, which rarely happens. It seems to me though that wine is particularly unsuited to organic labels. It’s not like vegetable oil or carrots. IMO consumers buy either for taste or price. Organic wouldn’t satisfy either of those criteria.
It all depends how many converts the “organic” cult can gain.
A key ingredient of a hangovers are sulphites, added to preserve. Show the winemakers skill by not adding them and have another glass. Why add chemicals when the grape provides all that is needed
A key ingredient of a hangovers are sulphites, added to preserve. Show the winemakers skill by not adding them and have another glass. Why add chemicals when the grape provides all that is needed
As a rule, I don’t buy products labelled organic. I prefer to support businesses making good products rather than catering to the woke.
It all depends how many converts the “organic” cult can gain.
So what’s the issue? Climate change or reduced domestic consumption?
“By 2025, 100% of winemakers in Bordeaux will have some form of organic or sustainable certification, or be transitioning towards getting one.”
If anyone thinks this is the answer, the industry is in big trouble IMO. If you can’t maintain an industry on the value of the product itself, I don’t think slapping it with an organic label will help.
I stopped buying French wine a long time ago, finding it over-priced and over-rated compared not only to New World wines but Italian too. A matter of taste, no doubt, but are those who’ve turned their back on French wine meant to go along with the snobbery and the “wine lake” which we subsidised for decades?
That the average Frenchman used to consume 150 litres a year is beyond parody, but it does help explain French philosophy. We’re still suffering from the hangover.
That the average Frenchman used to consume 150 litres a year is beyond parody, but it does help explain French philosophy.
Very good point.
I was told years ago by Master of Wine that Southern French Wines offer some of the best value for money on the market and I tend to agree. Quality has greatly improved. Bordeaux and Burgundy produce excellent wines but are very expensive and below £20 a bottle one can buy better elsewhere. One supermarket has good offers and at times one can obtain discount of 25% if one buys six or more bottle which brings cost down to £5.25 for a good southern French wine.
Totally agree. French wine and indeed food is wildly overrated, I always considered it a masterpiece of delusion how it was apparently the best.
I shall agree with you with on some points, but not all. It’s quite easy to ignore the snobbery: just ignore it.
As for overpriced, may I disagree? France is a large country, with many different wine producing regions. There’s plenty of reasonably priced, good drinking to be had; especially if, like me, the upper echelons of Bordeaux Cru Classe (or indeed anything drinkable from Burgundy) require you to flog the car or remortgage the house to buy a case. Indeed, Auberon Waugh laments how even a well-off man such as himself was unwilling to pay the price of ‘great wine’, due to speculative inflation, in Waugh on Wine. Perhaps the rather restrictive constraints of the AOC system come into play here. Plenty of very good wine can be found (not just in France) by exploring the declassified offerings or the less fashionable regions.
Italy? A different beast entirely and with as much snobbery attached; but many a great find to be had. My own preference with ‘old world’ plonk is to look to Portugal, Spain and the emerging wine-makers in Eastern Europe. I remain to be convinced overall with regard to the ‘New World’, but have found may enjoyable (and reasonably priced) bottles
Wine lake? A decades old joke – the farmers need to plant something else. Overproduction is nothing new.
As for the author’s note that the French youth prefer a beer to a glass of wine, my only thought is towards the UK’s own CAMRA. French beer (apart from from concoctions such as the wonderful Bière de Garde) is uniformly bland, yellow p!sswater (see also Italy and Spain). Surely time for an advocacy organisation to wean the youth off their industrially produced cooking lager and back to their own national drink? So, I used Googletranslate (my schooldays French long lost) and Society for the Preservation of French Wine, might be Société pour la Préservation des Vins de France. After a little digging around, I can find no such equivalent organisation.
French philosophy? No excusing it!
Now, time for a drink.
I will politely disagree regarding prices. At my normal price point of 25-35 USD, California wines don’t compare well. 2X that for comparable quality. Of course Italy and Spain have great regional wines at that price as do Oregon/Washington and Argentina, but if you prefer the merlot/cab blends as I do, Bordeaux is still the go-to region.
That the average Frenchman used to consume 150 litres a year is beyond parody, but it does help explain French philosophy.
Very good point.
I was told years ago by Master of Wine that Southern French Wines offer some of the best value for money on the market and I tend to agree. Quality has greatly improved. Bordeaux and Burgundy produce excellent wines but are very expensive and below £20 a bottle one can buy better elsewhere. One supermarket has good offers and at times one can obtain discount of 25% if one buys six or more bottle which brings cost down to £5.25 for a good southern French wine.
Totally agree. French wine and indeed food is wildly overrated, I always considered it a masterpiece of delusion how it was apparently the best.
I shall agree with you with on some points, but not all. It’s quite easy to ignore the snobbery: just ignore it.
As for overpriced, may I disagree? France is a large country, with many different wine producing regions. There’s plenty of reasonably priced, good drinking to be had; especially if, like me, the upper echelons of Bordeaux Cru Classe (or indeed anything drinkable from Burgundy) require you to flog the car or remortgage the house to buy a case. Indeed, Auberon Waugh laments how even a well-off man such as himself was unwilling to pay the price of ‘great wine’, due to speculative inflation, in Waugh on Wine. Perhaps the rather restrictive constraints of the AOC system come into play here. Plenty of very good wine can be found (not just in France) by exploring the declassified offerings or the less fashionable regions.
Italy? A different beast entirely and with as much snobbery attached; but many a great find to be had. My own preference with ‘old world’ plonk is to look to Portugal, Spain and the emerging wine-makers in Eastern Europe. I remain to be convinced overall with regard to the ‘New World’, but have found may enjoyable (and reasonably priced) bottles
Wine lake? A decades old joke – the farmers need to plant something else. Overproduction is nothing new.
As for the author’s note that the French youth prefer a beer to a glass of wine, my only thought is towards the UK’s own CAMRA. French beer (apart from from concoctions such as the wonderful Bière de Garde) is uniformly bland, yellow p!sswater (see also Italy and Spain). Surely time for an advocacy organisation to wean the youth off their industrially produced cooking lager and back to their own national drink? So, I used Googletranslate (my schooldays French long lost) and Society for the Preservation of French Wine, might be Société pour la Préservation des Vins de France. After a little digging around, I can find no such equivalent organisation.
French philosophy? No excusing it!
Now, time for a drink.
I will politely disagree regarding prices. At my normal price point of 25-35 USD, California wines don’t compare well. 2X that for comparable quality. Of course Italy and Spain have great regional wines at that price as do Oregon/Washington and Argentina, but if you prefer the merlot/cab blends as I do, Bordeaux is still the go-to region.
I stopped buying French wine a long time ago, finding it over-priced and over-rated compared not only to New World wines but Italian too. A matter of taste, no doubt, but are those who’ve turned their back on French wine meant to go along with the snobbery and the “wine lake” which we subsidised for decades?
That the average Frenchman used to consume 150 litres a year is beyond parody, but it does help explain French philosophy. We’re still suffering from the hangover.
As a regular wine drinker, I would say that the main problem with French wines is not delivering value-for-money. Apart from the top wines, most French wines, in general, are not considered high quality compared to what is available from other parts of the world at the same price.
As a regular wine drinker, I would say that the main problem with French wines is not delivering value-for-money. Apart from the top wines, most French wines, in general, are not considered high quality compared to what is available from other parts of the world at the same price.
Odd to omit all consideration of demographic collapse, and the grand remplacement of the Gallic population by ostensibly teetotal muslims.
Exactly. If the French don’t have kids, who will drink the wine?
French population has grown from 45m in 1960 to 65m now. Still plenty of potential Gallic drinkers i suspect
Exactly. If the French don’t have kids, who will drink the wine?
French population has grown from 45m in 1960 to 65m now. Still plenty of potential Gallic drinkers i suspect
Odd to omit all consideration of demographic collapse, and the grand remplacement of the Gallic population by ostensibly teetotal muslims.
Happily not missing French wine or any French products since 2016.
Just remember that we used to own Bordeaux and you’ll be able to keep drinking it with a cleaner conscience. Some things are more important than Brexit !
Just remember that we used to own Bordeaux and you’ll be able to keep drinking it with a cleaner conscience. Some things are more important than Brexit !
Happily not missing French wine or any French products since 2016.
How terrible. Oh well. I buy English wines like Chapel Down these days instead.
Yes how terrible. Oh well. I buy English wines like Buckfast,a ‘tonic’ wine ( apparently made by monks and drunk by drunks) instead.
Yes how terrible. Oh well. I buy English wines like Buckfast,a ‘tonic’ wine ( apparently made by monks and drunk by drunks) instead.
How terrible. Oh well. I buy English wines like Chapel Down these days instead.
Interesting that grubbing up costs €2,000 per hectare, but the farmers are seeking to be subsidised by €10,000!
Interesting that grubbing up costs €2,000 per hectare, but the farmers are seeking to be subsidised by €10,000!
I’m confused. First we learn that “grubbing costs €2,000 per hectare, money Jean-François does not have”, which seems hard to believe; an initial expense of €4,000 would buy him two hectares for growing more profitable crops, or sell. But then we are informed that the cost of “pulling-up of vines in Bordeaux’s less prestigious areas [costs] €10,000 per hectare.” So which is it?
But maybe the author’s apparent failure to proof-read his piece reveals his real priority, which is to spread the gospel of Global Warming, or Climate Change, whichever fits the weather-anxieties of the day.
I think it would be 2k in grubbing costs for him to carry it out but wants 10k from the French government. I suppose it will come out of the CAP that has kept French farmers going for the past 5 decades
I think it would be 2k in grubbing costs for him to carry it out but wants 10k from the French government. I suppose it will come out of the CAP that has kept French farmers going for the past 5 decades
I’m confused. First we learn that “grubbing costs €2,000 per hectare, money Jean-François does not have”, which seems hard to believe; an initial expense of €4,000 would buy him two hectares for growing more profitable crops, or sell. But then we are informed that the cost of “pulling-up of vines in Bordeaux’s less prestigious areas [costs] €10,000 per hectare.” So which is it?
But maybe the author’s apparent failure to proof-read his piece reveals his real priority, which is to spread the gospel of Global Warming, or Climate Change, whichever fits the weather-anxieties of the day.
This is a subject for lying down and avoiding (with a bottle of Cotes du Rhone preferably).
I’d sit upright to drink it. An headline such as “Man chokes to death on bottle of Cotes du Rhone” might just spell the end for that region.
I’d sit upright to drink it. An headline such as “Man chokes to death on bottle of Cotes du Rhone” might just spell the end for that region.
This is a subject for lying down and avoiding (with a bottle of Cotes du Rhone preferably).
“ The vignerons also have expectations of President Macron, a celebrated, self-avowed oenophile who drinks two glasses of wine a day, one with lunch and one with dinner.”
Correction: whatever their expectations of Macron may or may not be, they would be of a politician someone who once *claimed*, during an election campaign, in a conversation with a wine industry media outlet, to drink two glasses of wine a day.
https://www.winespectator.com/articles/emmanuel-macron-french-president-candidate-blind-tasting-unfiltered
Come on Unherd, you can do better than this.
“ The vignerons also have expectations of President Macron, a celebrated, self-avowed oenophile who drinks two glasses of wine a day, one with lunch and one with dinner.”
Correction: whatever their expectations of Macron may or may not be, they would be of a politician someone who once *claimed*, during an election campaign, in a conversation with a wine industry media outlet, to drink two glasses of wine a day.
https://www.winespectator.com/articles/emmanuel-macron-french-president-candidate-blind-tasting-unfiltered
Come on Unherd, you can do better than this.
We stopped drinking French wines a number of years ago for a simple reason – they aren’t very good anymore. Why should I pay several hundred dollars a bottle for a first growth Bordeaux when I can buy an equally good bottle of Spanish or Italian wine for substantially less?
We stopped drinking French wines a number of years ago for a simple reason – they aren’t very good anymore. Why should I pay several hundred dollars a bottle for a first growth Bordeaux when I can buy an equally good bottle of Spanish or Italian wine for substantially less?
I am reading this as I am about to board a plane from Nice to Bordeaux, and what a tedious and dull place it is. Given that the bourgeois not least the petit bourgeois run everything in nu britn, what is the surprise?
I am reading this as I am about to board a plane from Nice to Bordeaux, and what a tedious and dull place it is. Given that the bourgeois not least the petit bourgeois run everything in nu britn, what is the surprise?
I’m sure the solution is government subsidies all around, no? I mean, “because it is France”, of courseb.
I’m sure the solution is government subsidies all around, no? I mean, “because it is France”, of courseb.
I stopped reading when the climate change scam was invoked.
I stopped reading when the climate change scam was invoked.
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