Click to be added or removed.Wine news ping.
Posted on 07/14/2005 4:02:10 AM PDT by Cowman
French give away 400,000 bottles of wine From correspondents in Narbonne July 14, 2005 From: Agence France-Presse
WINE growers in southern France, eager to alert holidaymakers to the crisis hitting the industry, will hand out 400,000 bottles later this month at toll booths and along rural roads in the region.
Wines produced in the Aude department - in and around Narbonne and Carcassonne - as well as those made in the Languedoc will be given out, especially to tourists vacationing in the Aude, the wine producers' union said. The free bottles will bear special labels extolling the virtues of the wine, and producers also will distribute leaflets explaining the current overproduction crisis in France's wine industry.
A large part of France's 2004 output remains unsold and Paris has won authorisation from the European Union to convert 1.5 million hectoliters of top quality "appellation" wine into spirits via distillation.
Wine growers fear that another bumper harvest this year will only aggravate the problem.
The world's biggest wine producer, France is under mounting pressure to reform its industry because of declining consumption at home and intense competition abroad from new producer countries like Australia and Chile.
Free french wine?? Hey, I'll take . . . . . . . . none!
Click to be added or removed.Wine news ping.
It looks like they realized that the recent bombings weren't helping their cause. Now they are using a promotional tactic - maybe they did a litle research on free-market capitalism.
convert 1.5 million hectoliters of top quality "appellation" wine into spirits via distillation.
I'm not sure what this means--is it wine flavored vodka? Fortified wine?
Ditto that.
Maybe they should work muslim districts. See tagline.
Cognac.
I'll take some.
The French still have some hope as a culture. They need to be our allies again.
brandy--of course...a sheepish thank you. :o)
Can't do that in CA.
Cognac is actually distilled wine
Or Cask-strength Springbank....
Some states have an "open container" law, that is used to prosecute people who are drinking while driving, even if they are not intoxicated yet. South Carolina is such a state. Back when I lived there, the fine was $75 for each open container within the vehicle. One time a friend-of-a-friend was driving his pickup and got pulled over by a cop. This fellow was in the habit of throwing his empty cans in the bed of his pickup, and whenever he had a bed full, he'd go cash them in at a recycling center. Well, when pulled over, he had one freshly opened Coors Light in the cab, and 299 cans in the bed. The officer wrote him a ticket for 300 open containers ($22,500) which was probably twice as much money as this fellow earned in a year.
Not in Texas or Louisiana. They still have so called beer barns where you drive in one end, buy your beer, bread and bacon and drive out the other end. I think in Louisiana they have drive thru daiquiri barns.
Heck, until not too long ago in Texas it was legal to drive with an open beer(s) and people measured distance in 6 packs. Your pick up truck, your gun and some beer makes it so much easier to shoot up the road signs as you drive by.
Yeah I know but it's still a tough go to sell Jack Daniels in say Saudi Arabia.
Beats me. Sounds similar to making Cognac. I'll venture a guess that these wines are bulk, and in fact the worst of France makes. By distilling (and perhaps fortifying too) they can make an 'adult beverage' that can sit around awhile since these particular French wines won't age very well.
I love good news. Hey france, here's an idea-don't PO your big customers. We stop buying. Too bad, so very very sad.
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