France is facing a serious wine surplus

Maybe we should all book a trip to France, because they need help over there. The country is in dire straits. What’s going on? They have a serious wine surplus. I know; it’s hard to imagine, but it’s seriously true.

Winegrowers are left with full vats, and it has now become so bad that around Bordeaux, some 15,000 hectares of vineyards will be destroyed. Just to clarify: that’s about 13 percent of their vineyards in total — and more than 1,300 winegrowers are in trouble.

There is a minimum of 2.5 million (!) hectoliters of excess wine

And that’s across France as a whole. I can’t drink all that on my own (obviously), so perhaps we should go there in large numbers to support the wine industry. Those 2.5 million are already a lost cause; they will be distilled. For example, the alcohol is extracted from the wine for use in other products — such as hand sanitizer, perfume and things like that. The French government has allocated 160 million for that distillation, but according to the wine industry, that is far too little; at least 200 million would be needed.

Wine sales had already fallen last year, when 15 percent less wine was sold in supermarkets. That is expected to increase considerably, because experts say sales will fall by a total of 60 percent over the next ten years.

What on earth is going on over there?! Why does no one want wine anymore?! The explanations vary widely; many people blame Covid (because: fewer exports to China), while others point to inflation, taxes and the fact that young French people are drinking less these days. But there are also critical voices; the wine industry allegedly has not modernized enough in recent years, and therefore has only itself to blame.

As it happens, I’m going to Paris at the end of this month, and do you know what I’m going to do there? Drink. A. Lot. Of. Wine. Help is on the way.

Read also:

• Fill up the glasses: tasting wine makes you smarter
• At this resort, you can swim in red wine
• You want this now: a wine tap for your home

Source: Het Parool