A GOOD wine is a terrible thing to waste. But sometimes even the French have no choice when the good stuff isn't selling. As painful as it surely must be in a country where the fruit of the vintner's labors is considered a fine art, winemakers are drowning in vats of surplus wine.
The worldwide glut has gotten so bad that for the first time in history French vineyards that produce quality wine several sniffs above the ordinary table brands are getting rid of it. They're distilling millions of bottles worth of reds and whites into - fuel. Mon Dieu!
Previously France had resorted to distilling surpluses of lowly table wines into vinegar and ethanol. But the quality wines were sacrosanct until bottles began piling up in vineyards and stores where shoppers could buy some for less than what it cost for bottled water.
Winemakers long deceased must be turning in their graves with the woeful developments. And yet their successors, some of whom took to the streets early in the year to protest the falling wine prices, have to survive somehow.
By the end of this year hundreds of wine-makers will turn their mellow Merlots and crisp Chardonnays into crystal-clear ethanol, which will be sold to oil refineries for use as an additive for gasoline. France already uses about 1 percent ethanol in its gasoline and that percentage is expected to rise to 5.75 percent in a few years to meet European Union demands for more use of renewable fuels.
In the meantime, France will continue exporting its wine-blended gasoline abroad to one of its biggest markets in the United States. Ironic, no? People who wouldn't touch a french fry in a patriotic huff could be pumping gas into their cars with a bit of France's best Beaujolais.The reasons for the wine glut vary from new producers in countries like Australia and Chile to falling demand in France, where wine used to be abundantly enjoyed at lunch and dinner until a crackdown began against drunken driving.
"What's killing consumption is fear of the gendarmes," lamented one vintner before his doomed wine headed off to the local distillery.
The ruinous price decline of even top-shelf French wine will, by year's end, force millions of bottles worth to become full bodied gasoline at the tank. It could be the end of French civilization as we know it.
Instead of toasting the new year will motorists wonder how many miles per gallon the Gamay Beaujolais can deliver?
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