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
-----
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.