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.
----- Original Message -----
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.