Yet Another French Whine

French wine sales decline again and producers want another handout.

That morning's news bulletin gave me a retort. I told him that I'd lived in Paris long enough to agree with him about the Yank insistence on using pasteurized milk for cheese--a gastronomic heresy that takes away too many potent flavors. But (I went on) do you realize that the people known here contemptuously as amerloques--trans-Atlantic connoisseurs of Buds and burgers--will soon drink more wine than the French?

An uncomfortable smile followed a look of disbelief. One could almost see a whole chateau of Gallic self-mythology start to collapse before his eyes. Maybe the "good life"--including the right food and drink--would no longer be the sole possession of the French, if it ever was.

The U.S. will be the world's top consumer of wine by 2008, passing France, according to a new study for the Vinexpo wine fair in Bordeaux. That same year, Americans will drink 28% more wine than they did in 2003; the French, 7.4% less. With wine consumption down nearly 40% since 1970, France will also cede its top spot in glasses per capita to Italy.

Would you like more whine with your cheese?