Old story on US sales of French wine

This article, from last year, discusses the drop in demand for French wines in the US market.

Something was missing from the country's largest wine fair here last week, and it was not just the air conditioning in one of the exhibition halls (where temperatures rose so high, corks popped). The usual contingent of American wine merchants were mostly absent, confirming to many in the trade fair's bottle-filled booths that American ill will over France's opposition to the war in Iraq has bruised more than egos.

French wine exports to the United States, which was once French winemakers' most promising market and is now one of their greatest competitors, are going down the drain.

"It's clear from our American distributors that there is a hesitation to promote French wines for the time being," said Bruno Finance, sales manager for Yvon Mau, one of Bordeaux's largest wine merchants. He said French wine was losing ground in some other markets, "but as of today the only place there is such a big loss is in the U.S."

Interestingly, after a flurry of articles in spring 2003, this topic dropped off the radar. The most recent US article I could find in a quick search was from April, which reported that sales of French wine in the United States were off by nearly 25% over the year. A report from the Bordeaux Wine Council earlier this month claimed that prices have collapsed by "almost half in the past three years. In the past 12 months exports have fallen by 9% and between 10-20% of the region's 9,000 producers are in varying degrees of financial hardship."

I guess, based on this, that the unofficial boycott of French wine continues, even without newspaper or television hype.

Hat tip to James Lileks for the IHT story URL.