Attack a Supermarket, Sell more wine??

Riot
Winemakers in the south of France are rioting again and destroying public property. They are upset because things just aren’t going their way. Sales are down. production is up, imported wine sales are up. So, naturally, they choose to…

-Burn railway crossings

-Rail cars were set ablaze

-Rail communication networks were disabled

-Supermarkets were vandalized with imported wines swept off the shelf

-Tanks at a local distillery were destroyed leaving 13,000 hectoliters of Chilean wine running in the streets.

What doe the rioting French vintners want? Besides amelioration of their woes in the form of tax breaks and the government to purchase more of their wine, it’s likely they want the world to back up to the 1960s when French wine was the king of the hill.

This is really the essence of the French problem. The French vintners simply have not adapted to a world in which very good wine at very good prices is now being produced at every corner of the globe. Clearly the French people have adapted as they are buying more Australian, Chilean, New Zealand, and Argentina wine, and less of the French wines.

I’m certain the French vintners know they must change how they market their wines. How could they not? But first, they want financial help to get them through this crisis. But do they also realize they need to drastically improve the quality of their low end wines? This I doubt.

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2 Responses

  1. Jimmy Mancbach - May 29, 2005

    Hey, they are French, who gives a dam? They are not even worth the effort of me caring. They deserve nothing.

  2. Ryan Scott - June 1, 2005

    If the French were to change some of the regulations such as the regulation against private wineries being able to advertise. They are only allowed to advertise by region, to my understanding. Lifting that regulation would help.


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