The French government has recognized that its wine industry is in crisis, with many loss-making vineyards and a huge surplus of mediocre table wine. A grant has been given for a large university-based examination of the industry, with a brief to recommend an alternative strategy by 2008. In the meantime, lower alcohol levels have been approved for some wines, to reduce their basic cost and to make them more palatable to drinkers anxious to keep down their alcohol consumption.

France is also coming into line with EU and new world practice by legalizing the use of oak chips in wine-making. This is a reversal of previous policy, when winemakers risked a heavy fine if they failed to create the oak flavour by storing their wine in the traditional way, in oak barrels. Vineyard owners are almost equally divided about the merits of this move.  Some feel this will enable them to compete on an even footing but others fear it will lead to lower and lower quality thresholds throughout wine production.

From our July 2006 e-newsletter