The French wine industry, seemingly the indestructible pillar of French society and culture, is in trouble, and has been for a few years now. Worldwide market share has slipped, producers are being crushed by the big boys such as Constellation (which focuses on American and Australian wines) on marketing, Draconian European drunk-driving laws have driven fear into even the casual consumer, wine consistency is not so consistent, and, back in January, the French government proposed a wine-industry aid program that performs the neat task of both over-protecting and angering the French wine industry. Wine Enthusiast reported in December that the number of commercial growers has dropped from 196,600 to 112,500 in France from 1994 to 2003, and the number of Bordeaux producers (everyone loves a good Bordeaux!) have thinned out by 29% since 1994. As Napa Valley, Carneros, Australia, and Chile have boomed, France is nearing bust.

As in (seemingly) everything else, France's solution has it backwards. Instead of encouraging wineries to experiment with new grape varietals and marketing programs, the government's first reaction is to rip out vines, turn top-shelf AOC wine into industrial alcohol, and limit production to bring supply even with demand. What a concept. Demand's off, so let's cut supply without being aggressive about raising demand! For those of you still doing a double-take on the concept of distilling high-quality wine for fuel, that's just one of the provisions in the approximately 70 million euro wine industry aid package proposed to the EU.

The French Revolution spirit of the French fighting themselves when things turn ill could be a reason for the sparse marketing and paucity of mega-brands (like Constellation, Gallo, etc. that take up a huge chunk of US shelf space). Loathe to join forces and achieve economies of scale with their neighbors, producers fail to break the cycle.

Laws prevent wineries from making wine out of grapes from another appellation, even if they are the same varietal. This handicaps wineries if climate, parasite, or vine-replacement strategies result in a thin or ill vintage. Australia doesn't have that problem. With "South Eastern Australia" being a region roughly gigantic, one can easily see how Constellation can make a consistent (and pretty good) Alice White Australian Shiraz. In Australia, if one vineyard's grapes are junk, the winery uses another's from within the same huge region with similar climate and soil, and it makes an analogous wine. But Alice White, at about $9, isn't your typical French Bordeaux... which may be why it commands shelf space and market share, while you won't find small Bordeaux wineries' products even getting onto shelves in the States.

I certainly do not ask French wineries to dedicate themselves to lowest-common-denominator wines, but they can't continue to be known only for the best of the best (which I hear is still French) and hang on to the #1 world sales and prestige rank. If France wishes to become a boutique producer of only high-end wines, fine, but that seems like a sad ending for the grand dame of wine countries. For example, the Mercedes S-Class didn't get any less appealing once Merc started selling the C-Coupe in the USA for around $27,000. If anything, it exposed the brand to more consumers. France should want to stay in the game at all price points, and it is here that its failure is most pronounced.

And it all comes back to appellation. Unlike in the USA, where a winery could discover that the Pinot Noir they have been planting for 50 years just doesn't taste quite right now that pollution has gone up in the area, and decide to plant a hardier grape that might be more suitable, French vintners are bound by the appellation's specific allowances of varietal, crop size, farming method, etc. It is as anti-market a system as could be imagined, and it is the perfect symbol of what is wrong with France, both in general and in its wine industry. Yes, wine is noble, wine is ancient, but wine is a consumer product, and if the French wines want to be more than museum pieces, they must innovate.

To its credit, the French government has loosened naming restrictions on table wine, to allow notation of the varietal, but why stop there? Why not let poor Louis Jadot stamp "Chardonnay" on his AOC Puligny-Montrachet? I can think of no reason besides snobbery and contempt for the vulgate. Microcosmic, eh? I suppose the Church analogy works to some extent; French wine is in need of a Reformation.