Blimey Sylus...you really are in your old world
With respect, from what experience do you speak? This is not meant to be rude, but do you really have any wine tasting experience other than £5 bottle wines from a supermarket?
What knowledge base forms the logic of your argument?
I'm genuinely interested in your perspective.
There was a time when France did export some pretty bad wines (USA are doing that job today). ...we're going back to the 80's when all that cheap stuff from the Languedoc was about. It was, without doubt, pretty bad.
But the French did recognise this and scrubbed-up about 80% of the vineyard area and concentrated on quality not quantity.
Yes, Chablis did over-sulphur, but that's by-and-large gone.
Burgundy...yup...they did blend their wine with imports from Morocco etc...but that really was a long time ago.
Of course there is still some tat from France, just as there is from any wine producing country...but to suggest France only produces tat is a rather uneducated statement. If you look at New World wineries who are at the high-end and are endeavouring to produce fine wine, where do they take their inspiration? Where do they train? Where do they visit? By and large...France of course.
The biggest detriment to the UK wine market is branding and the mass-volume production branding, by definition, requires. Look anywhere other than a proper wine merchant and what do you see...some old same old branded wines...everywhere. Where are these wines manufactured and bottled?
Well, largely they are produced in the fantastic new markets you speak of. Chile, South Africa et al. Shame...these countries do produce some fantastic wines too but no doubt their reputation will be sullied by the brands.
The supermarkets need massive volumes of the same product...with wine I have heard that is something like a commitment of 2 million bottles for a high selling wine. I'm sure I don't need to spell out how this 'wine' is manufactured.
There is another angle...and I'm guessing this is where you sit.
If you only buy in a supermarket/multi-chain etc, your exposure is going to be seriously limited because of the reasons above. A lot of wine sold here is also not much more than alcopop....over-sweet, over-extracted, over-cleaned with little more than primary fruit flavours on offer. Bubble-gum wines. If I gave you something a bit ...erm...left-field to try like Frank Cornelissens Etna Munjebel to taste, you may well consider if 'off' ...it's a bit mad for sure
Go on-line and look at a few lists from Independent Wine Merchants and you will see a common theme. The bulk of the list will usually be sourced
from France
