While initiatives such as “Dry January” – which sees people start the new year by abstaining from alcohol for a month – are not popular in France, sales of alcohol-free wine are on the rise. People who do continue to drink are drinking less, and seeking out wines with less alcohol content.
“We do consider the alcohol content when we buy a new wine. Red wines now go up to 15 degrees, and that’s intense, so we pay attention,” said Pierre, who was visiting a popular independent wine makers' fair in the south of Paris.
He considers the alcohol content particularly carefully when he buys wine from a shop, where he can't taste it.
While wine remains the drink of choice for more than half the French population, alcohol consumption in general has dropped over the past three decades, with numerous studies showing that people are drinking less, driven by health and wellness concerns.
This leaves winemakers with a conundrum. Because just as people want to drink less, their wines are getting more alcoholic.
“Maybe 20 years ago, we were more around 13 degrees, but today it's difficult for us to be under 13 degrees, and we are more around 14 or 15 – and trying not to go too much over that,” says Martin Lepoutre, who makes wine with his girlfriend on her family’s vineyard, Domaine Rabasse Charavin, in the Rhone valley.
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