Oh, the U.S.- France rivalry continues. A British study has predicted that by 2008, the U.S. will outpace France in wine consumption. Looks like Italy might remain #2, which means France would drop two places, a pretty big fall.
Wine consumption has been on the decline in Europe for years, while the U.S. has been playing catch-up. I find it interesting that the article notes the decline in many countries over there, noting that among other things, people are drinking less wine of a better quality.
I feel bad for the French wine industry, it's had a pretty rough time as of late. I wonder if it will be able to recover. They just did have a small win in that wine ads are now allowed to have text describing the wine (they used to be allowed to show only a picture of the wine and I think state the name/producer) and maybe that will give sales a boost, but I am just not sure.
Oh, hm, maybe I stand corrected. The Wine Institute says that as of 1997 at least, Luxembourg had the biggest wine consumption per capita. Of course, the U.S. is also down at #36 (not even 2 gallons per person, goodness), so obviously things have changed a lot since then, but I wonder where Luxembourg stands now? Off to poke around...
Comments