Mystified, I mean, by the French, among whom I live. But the French? Surely not. But yes. They seem to be losing their grip.
Some 4. I never thought it would happen to the clear-thinking, clean-drinking heirs of Rabelais. But it has.
These are worrying times β not so much for you and me as for the French nation. In January and, frankly, throughout the year, the entry-level puritans are spectacularly shooting their country in the foot. French alcohol consumption has been plummeting since the s, most of the plunge due a dramatic drop-off in wine drinking.
In , your average French adult ie, over 15 drank litres a year: slightly more than three bottles a week. Old fellows I knew who, back then, polished off three bottles a day easily compensated for nuns and other amateurs. In , the annual per capita figure was down to 40 litres, or one bottle a week. Some , jobs are linked, directly and indirectly, to the sector.
But all that is for the time being. As mentioned, the trends over the last decades are not promising. So the very last thing the wine and spirits industry needs is a squad of yahoos drumming up fear that all alcohol is poison, that the only positive thing about it is that it may be renounced.
