In general, the French blame the rise of soft drinks for turning the post  
war generations against wine. But as far as a I know no real systematic study  
has been done on the question.
 
 
How has increased soft drink consumption among the under-35s contributed to  
the decline of wine-drinking in France?  I take for granted that soft drink  
consumption has grown.  


On Sep 16, 2005, at 11:56 AM, Gerald Groenewald wrote:


My own gut feeling is that this is part of the on-going globalisation of  
alcoholic drinks, something which has been happening since the early modern  
period (in Europe, at least): a move away from traditionally 'national' drinks  to 
supposedly 'foreign' ones, e.g. the shift in the Netherlands in the 17-18th  
centuries from beer drinking to wine and brandy. Thus the traditional divide  
between northern beer-drinking and southern wine-drinking Europe became less  
and less evident, and I would imagine that what is now happening in  France is 
a continuance of that trend; an erosion of what is considered  'traditional' 
drink and a greater democratisation of choice in drink. It would  be 
interesting comparing figures for beer and wine drinking in  northern and southern 
European countries.
 
Regards,
 
Gerald Groenewald
 

----- Original Message  -----
From:  _David  Fahey_ (mailto:[log in to unmask]) 
To:  [log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask]) 
Sent: Friday,  September 16, 2005 5:23 PM
Subject: fewer  wine-drinkers in France


Noticed an AP story in today's New York Times re the decline  of 
wine-drinking in  France: almost all the French who drink wine regularly are 
over 35, just over half the  French population drink wine, and the number of 
French wine drinkers has  dropped by a million over the last five 
years.  May I ask ADHS  why?  Comparative data for other countries?  I think 
that in the USA wine drinking  is more common now than a generation ago, and 
beer-drinking and  whiskey-drinking are what are in decline.