Beret, baguette, and bottle of wine. It’s a caricature we all know well. And without that bottle? Well, it just wouldn’t be French, now would it?
Wine and France are synonymous in our collective cultural understanding of the world. And it used to be that if one wanted to become a great winemaker — or any sort of authority in the wine realm — all roads went through France. The country’s acclaimed regions and lionized producers were considered the apex of wine and cultural aspiration.
Likewise, the country has dominated not only global markets and winemaking methods, but global plantings over the past century. Almost all the wine grape varieties we’ve come to know and love — Cabernet, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon Blanc, just to name a few — are essentially of French origin. They’ve sat atop the wine world for so long now that continued French dominance is assumed.
But the world has become smaller, and that once infallible beacon of vinous virtuosity no longer stands above all others. Competition is surging, drinking habits are changing, and today’s more adventurous consumers thirst for novelty.
Despite recently setting a new export value record, French export volume in the first quarter of 2023 hit its lowest point since 2010. Now at a crossroads, the livelihood, identity, and pride of French winemakers is under threat from an interconnected world some are reluctant to recognize. While protests boil over and lawmakers rush to respond, the spiritual leader of wine finds itself in a previously unthinkable position: It no longer dictates and defines global wine culture. And as the monopolistic aura the country once held dissolves, France has no choice but to adapt.
Smashed Cava, cheap imports, surplus wine
On 19 October 2023, a conspiratorial band of aggrieved southern French vintners took action. In a scene now well documented in the wine industry, the furious mob of winegrowers — numbering around 500 — hijacked incoming trucks near the Spanish border. But this wasn’t some kind of “Goodfellas” heist. It was a statement to the French government and the world.
Thousands of bottles of Cava — Spain’s inexpensive alternative to traditional French bubbly like Champagne and Crémant — met their demise in the melee, as did a tanker full of Spanish red. Tires burned, and as the thirsty highway pavement soaked up this unusually boozy precipitation, the angry crowd demanded reparations from Paris for the ongoing economic damage inflicted on their vineyards and wineries by cheap imports. And though the French government may have limited means to remedy the situation — outside of skirting EU law — the immense frustration has nonetheless taken aim at its stereotypical targets.
“Despite the inadmissibility of violence, I find myself resonating with the sentiments of these protesters,” says Guido Rossi Monti, an Italian wine consultant and educator in Florence. “The prevalence of large-scale, inexpensive sparkling wine trends is undeniably creating a deceptive landscape for consumers — and causing substantial harm to numerous producers.” There’s an ongoing shift in pricing dynamics, and France is now finding itself at a disadvantage with diminished market share.
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