| While Hotel Imperial in Delhi is celebraing the arrival of Beajolais Nouveau (a week after its heralded arrival on the world scene on November 17th, the traditional third Thursday of November), over 9 million liters of unsold Beaujolais from the previous years is to be converted into disinfectants, alcohol or gas additives. This is one and a half time India's annual consumption of less than 6 million liters.
Chicago Suntimes reports that overproduction, dipping domestic consumption and overseas competition have created a European wine crisis. ''For years, we shrugged the crisis off as a temporary downturn,'' said Gilles de Longevialle, who heads a group representing the vintners of Beaujolais. ''But we're beginning to see it's here to stay.''
Until last year, so-called ''crisis distillations'' were only for the cheapest table wines. Now, however, quality wines are also distilled away. This is the second year in a row that Philippe Terrollion has had to send out a fleet of trucks to pick up the surplus Beaujolais. ''For vintners, the decision to distill is a hard one,'' said Terrollion. ''But in the end, they have to do it", he added.
The complete story is available at http://www.suntimes.com |
