Reading, writing and roussanne
If you were one of the top two biggest wine producing countries in the world and you saw your consumption rate decline by roughly half in little more than a generation, what would you do?
a) start teaching about the “benefits of wine in appropriate consumption” to schoolchildren
b) emphasize natural wines
c) introduce bottles of varying sizes beyond the standard 750ml
d) create an export promotion board
e) reduce redundancies in appellations, vin de pays, and vin de table
If you answered “all of the above,” then you must be Philippe-Armand Martin et Gérard Voisin! The two members of the French parliament have authored a report due out next week suggesting changes to help boost the standing of French wines at home and abroad.
The last two aren’t really new but the first three are. The details will be released next Wednesday.
But why stop the education with kids? Why not have tastings for adults? Quizzes on the geography of wine? Spelling bees? Altogether now, how do you spell viognier?
Story in Le Monde. Thanks, Chris!
tags: wine | wine consumption | france
On December 1st, 2006 at 6:03 pm ,Benjamin Bicais wrote:
It will be interesting to see how successful these efforts are as a lot of countries could do more to advance moderate wine consumption in their populations. Your suggestion of geography lessons is a good one because the AOC system does have a difficult learning curve (apparently even amongst the French).