The last time that the French took notice of the American way of doing things regarding anything to have to do with wine was back at the international wine competition in 1976 when two wines from America's northern California wine country took top honors besting the long dominant French in both the white and the red category. And even though the French have been producing wine more than ten times longer than the Americans, they had no choice but to face the fact that the old way isn't necessarily the best way.
As of Tuesday of this week, they took another cue from the Americans and have begun mimicking their wine country tours in an attempt to augment their eroding wine sales. France is the number one tourist destination in the world with more than eighty million visitors during 2007. The French ministry of tourism is hoping to combine that tourism expertise with the country's gift for viticulture and culture and capitalize on the world's interest in their wine regions which, until now, had been inaccessible.
The French people are the largest consumers of wine per capita in the world, at more than fifty liters annually. Yet, even the French have slowed their consumption of wine in large part due to the world recession. The French have fallen off in consumption by seven percent and French wine exports have also fallen off to the tune of ten percent over the prior year. Allowing entrée into their storied vineyards and wineries via wine country tours should go a long way toward offsetting those declines.
