The French government is allocating €200m (£171.6m) to destroy surplus wine and support producers.
It comes amid a cocktail of problems for the industry, including a falling demand for wine as more people drink craft beer.
Overproduction and the cost of living crisis are also hitting the industry.
Most of the €200m will be used to buy excess stock, with the alcohol sold for use in items such as hand sanitiser, cleaning products and perfume.
I was gonna guess you’re American even before reading your last sentence, because €10 for a glass of wine is outrageous by European standards. Hehe.
I’m in Eastern Europe right now, and I typically get a half-liter of very good local wine for less than €5.
You can buy very decent wine for less than 3€/bottle in any Portuguese supermarket 😅
Douro still wine is under rated. I love ports, but was so surprised by the reds. Unfortunately rich American and European retirees are going to ruin Portugal
The retirees don’t last so long (sorry), but overtourism is indeed a problem. Finding the right balance is the secret but clearly our politicians are not aiming for that… but in fairness, tourism was fantastic for many years to promote Porto’s renewal. But now it’s time to put a break on it but no one is interested in that :/
I wasn’t gonna mention supermarket prices… The poor Americans have it rough enough already. 😁
The price/quality ratio of wine in French supermarkets is absolutely crazy. You can walk in to a shabby corner store and get an absolutely decent Bordeaux for pocket change.