‘Gallic Sophistication’ Boosts French Wine Sales
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
French wine exports made strong gains last year in what the country’s experts hailed as victory of Gallic sophistication.
French wine sales abroad rose by 7.7% in 2007 to reach 6.75 billion euros, after three years of crisis in which thousands of hectares were grubbed up.
The gains were in large part due to higher demand from Britain, Germany, and America. Exports to Britain grew by four percent in volume and more than seven percent in value.
Bordeaux, Cotes du Rhone, and Champagne registered the biggest rises in volume, the French government export agency which published the figures, UbiFrance, said. However, Beaujolais and the southern Languedoc and Roussillon regions lost ground.
A wine specialist at the agency, Herve Henrotte, said that many drinkers who were first attracted to the simple grape varieties found in New World wines were ready to move to branch out into more sophisticated fare.
Exports to Asia have also been snowballing. Volumes are small but rising fast in areas such as China and Singapore. The latest evidence of China’s fascination for French wine was the purchase by Chinese buyers of a Bordeaux chateau last month.
