Anyone who doubts the French commitment to wine need only check out the BBC’s story about a “shadowy group” from France’s Languedoc region. The Union for Viticultural Action has a plucky-but-terrifying demand: Raise the price of wine, or the blood starts flowing.
The ultimatum appears to be driven by a number of factors. Low-priced foreign wines are eroding the local market. Vintners are reportedly killing themselves as their traditional way of life slowly disintegrates. And a change in government may open the door to new policies. Whether newly elected president Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservative government—which just received a greater parliamentary mandate in a recent election—is amiable to stepping in to shore up prices is unclear.
What is clear, however, is that pulling this kind of crap in the post-9/11 era takes a lot of grapes.
Why am I not surprised? I try not to buy French products, when possible. I’ve lived there, have French relatives by marriage, speak and write fluently, but am pretty disenchanted with the Gauls in general at the moment. This hopefully will pass.