French Peasants are Revolting

Decanter.com reports extraordinary scenes in the south of France and has video footage of angry vignerons destroying 10, 000 hectolitres of Chilean wine near Montpellier. Demonstrators also wrecked two supermarkets selling foreign wines and smashed rail signalling equipment. Total damage estimated at over €3m and they have threatened to step up their actions unless the government offers them more support (ie money).

Now does that make you want to go out and buy more French wine? No I thought not. What a shame they don’t put as much energy and inventiveness into making and marketing wines that the world wants, then they might not have these problems. They might like to know that their problems are not uncommon. Australia has a glut that has led to collapsing grape prices and no government will bail them out. It was the same in California a couple of years ago.