It saddens me to say that Americans, as wine drinkers, have been bamboozled. Lied to. Led astray. One would be pressed to think of a bottle of wine that can be bought in the U.S. for under $10 that not only A. taste good, but B. leaves you without a trace of a headache or other nagging symptoms that denote a poor quality wine. In the realm of imported French wine, trying to find one under $20 is very difficult. So consequently, as Americans we are trained to believe that you have to not only pay dearly to drink well, but that you must have some sort of training to do so. We did a test while in Paris. We purposely tried to purchase a bottle of undrinkable wine. Most were under 3 euros and none were over 5, all chosen at random. I am happy to report that we did not succeed. All of them were very pleasant tasting, with varying degrees of greatness of course. What is imported and sold to wine drinkers in the U.S. is nothing close to what the French drink themselves, at a fraction of the cost.
The British booze cruise is set to make a resurgence as consumers take advantage of the weakening euro.
The UK's summer of events combined with the European economic crisis is expected to see a return of day trips to the Calais superstores last popular in the eighties and nineties, trade magazine Off Licence News said.
Large UK-based retailers including Sainsbury's and Tesco closed their Calais warehouse stores in 2010 as exchange rates made booze cruises less attractive and prices fell in UK supermarkets.
But the two remaining large operators in the northern French town, Majestic and the Calais Wine Superstore, have both benefited from the closure of rivals and retailers believe the current conditions could make the trend popular again. The Calais Wine Superstore is advertising savings of between £2-£3 on bottles and offering three for £6, the magazine reported...
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Thought this was interesting:
ReplyDeleteBooze cruise resurgence predicted
The British booze cruise is set to make a resurgence as consumers take advantage of the weakening euro.
The UK's summer of events combined with the European economic crisis is expected to see a return of day trips to the Calais superstores last popular in the eighties and nineties, trade magazine Off Licence News said.
Large UK-based retailers including Sainsbury's and Tesco closed their Calais warehouse stores in 2010 as exchange rates made booze cruises less attractive and prices fell in UK supermarkets.
But the two remaining large operators in the northern French town, Majestic and the Calais Wine Superstore, have both benefited from the closure of rivals and retailers believe the current conditions could make the trend popular again. The Calais Wine Superstore is advertising savings of between £2-£3 on bottles and offering three for £6, the magazine reported...
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hyoD2Tk9E5vUnTUs83hc5Q8NwPjg?docId=N0260791337690241784A
It speaks of the weakening Euro not the quality of the wine being offered, for sure.