WTN, kind of: cheap rhone experiment

Oops....or did you just mean by "blocking roads" the very French act of protest?

If so...I can modify my comment?????

Gosh, what thread drift!
And I am as much to blame as anyone, so sorry guys.

Getting back to wine, I think it is important to make a difference between economic models.
A huge cooperative cellar and a fine wine estate are two different animals.
They have different expenses, different needs, and different standards.

Cellier des Dauphins is a money-making operation http://www.societe.com/societe/union-de ... 58622.html
It is owned by the producers themselves.
It is therefore very difficult to see the coop’s members as being exploited.

Many cellars in the Midi would give their eye teeth to be in Cellier des Dauphin’s shoes. They are indeed a success story.
Were individual winegrowers to go their own way, many (probably most) of them would not survive. By joining forces and building a brand, they have perpetuated viticulture in areas where it probably would have gone by the wayside otherwise.

No one says a winegrower’s life is simple or that the profit margins are wonderful. However, that is the name of the game for the mass production wines being discussed in this thread, and it is much the same in vineyard regions around the world.

Best regards,
Alex R.

But given the ridiculous things all governments spend money on (including trillion dollar wars and the by some counts 700+ military bases and facilities the American government operates around the world...French agricultural subsidies seem pretty ...harmless...

Appearances can be deceiving. European and American subsidies have comepletely warped pricing of many agricultural products, and developing nations find it extremely difficult to play on such an uneven playing field. The whole corn subsidy issue in the US is a main reason why corn-based sugars are found in almost every processed food item, and the health impacts of this are still being determined (e.g., its impact on obesity). The developing world has been trying to get the US and Europe to drop its subsidies over the last 20 years or so, but to no avail. Free markets indeed!

John,
You have hit the nail on the head.

Unfortunately, these issues are almost always skirted by politicians, who only think about re-election and pork barrel funding, and are barely known at all by the man in the street
Of course, things are not all one-sided... A French person would argue that, without the subsidies, the countryside would be deserted and that the country’s food security and independence would be at risk. This is not totally false.

However, it is not by sticking your head in the sand, muddling through, and sublimely ignoring some basic realities and the principles of free trade that things will improve.

There is surely room for someone to write a good, popularized book on protectionism, and who is really more protectionist than the next guy… I think we would all be in for a few surprises!

Meanwhile, there is a place on the market for cheap and cheerful wines. If the producers in the Côtes du Rhône don’t produce such a product, the Spanish or the South Africans or, who knows, the Chinese will produce it! Such products are subject to industrial procedures and modern marketing and distribution. They are to fine wine what Mc Donalds is to dining. But, hey, who has the money to, or even wishes to, drink Léoville Las Cases or Gevrey Chambertin Clos Saint Jacques every day?
Jenise was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the cheap wine she bought at the supermarket. Eric was rueful, seeing this as a sign of producers being squeezed.
Reflecting the globalized world we live in today, the picture is very complex...

One last point: it came out last week that only 5% of all the clothing sold in France is made in this country. People were shocked to know of this figure. Voices were raised that “something must be done”. But, at the end of the day, very little can be done. And consumers who decry this state of things will not think twice about buying a shirt or a blouse from Asia at rock bottom prices…

So goes it with wine.

Best regards,
Alex R.