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Article: FRENCH RALLY AS WINE BIZ SLIPS.(Home Front)
- Article from:
- Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
- Article date:
- July 31, 2004
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Byline: Jennifer Rosen
France has her culottes in a knot. Exports of her most profitable agricultural crop, wine, are way down.
Her markets have been hijacked by New World upstarts whose quality is due in part, ironically, to French consultants known as "flying winemakers." A strong Euro has prices unattractively high. And there was that boycott.
The French mystique is lost on today's consumers. They drink their wine young and fruity, they're down with screw caps and they want to know what grape is in the bottle.
It's not just an export problem. Per-capita wine consumption in France has plummeted from 130 bottles a year in the '60s, to ...