Wines shouldn’t be cheap !

It’s true our buying power is not the same as before. We are crossing a big credit crunch period. Millions of people don’t have job and the money that go with it. We going to work two years more without security to get a retreat pension (just for French reader). But it is a reason to destroy wine culture (in France).

Every day in my job, I’m confront to people who ask for wine under five Euros but do you know how much It cost to produce a bottle of wine. Wine it’s not Coca-Cola, it’s not an artificial product made with artificial component that can be produce in astronomical quantity. Wine is a result of one year of labor, is the result of a complex process very difficult to master.

For France, I think wine still one of the only agricultural product make in an artisanal way. It’s one of the only product actually on the market made hundred percent (or nearly) in France by French people. Think about what you’re wearing, eating or even driving. Are they made in France in an artisanal way ? I’m not sure.

Don’t forget inflation and crisis is touching wine producers to. There is different way to protect this French cultural heritage : stop buying bulk (cheap) wine in the supermarket, look at the label and the capsules for the “recoltant” mention (preferred to “negociant”), buy wine at list at ten or more Euros. Wine have cost but bottle, label, corked, capsules have one to. And you can be sure that when you buy a wine under five Euros (in a wine shop) those costs are not cover (don’t forget transport cost and seller margin).

Don’t deform my speech, I’m not fighting for wine to become a Luxury product but wines don’t have to be cheap if you want a product of good quality and with integrity. Some are approving this with excess (I’m thinking about Bordeaux First Growth) but they are the worst example you can see. There is an abyss between ten Euros and the exorbitant price of a Bordeaux First Growth. Just put a bit more money in your basic daily wine and you will found more pleasure (drinking it) and make people happier.

PS : You can also add an environmental touch to your buying act preferring organic or biodynamic wine.