For several years many European vineyards have been making a percentage of their wine into alcohol to use in disinfectants and as gasoline additives. The European Union may have to force vineyards to destroy some of their vines because the over-production of wine is getting out of hand. The EU has been trying to control prices on wines and been spending $190 million a year in destroying perfectly good wine to do so. Now there is a proposal out to destroy 100,000 acres of wine, more than 10% of Europe's total acreage of vines, over the next five years as a way to control the surplus. Europe, especially France has suffered from poor wine sales the past decade.
Other wine producing areas such as New Zealand, Australia, South America, South Africa, and the US are producing very good wines at decent prices that are now controlling the market. It is yet to be seen whether the European vineyards will be cut back or if some other method of control will be used. Personally I might drink more French and European wines if the price dropped, especially for the better quality products which I don't try as often as I would like.
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