Professor Rod Phillips was interviewed recently by the French edition of The Local, a news service for English-speakers living in Europe, on patterns of wine consumption in France. Rod has written extensively on wine, and his books include French Wine: A History (University of California Press, 2016, paperback 2020).
The reason for interest in wine-drinking patterns in France is that per capita wine consumption there has declined dramatically since the 1960s. The French drank almost 80 litres of wine a year around 1980, but now drink only about half that – the equivalent of a bottle a week. More important, the percentage of people drinking wine regularly (more-or-less daily) has fallen from 50% in 1980 to 15% today, and 40% of French people now report not drinking wine at all. One result is that the number of cafés and bars selling wine in France has declined precipitously, from 200,000 fifty years ago to 30,000 today. These are serious trends in a country where more than half a million people are employed in producing wine and where wine is embedded in the nation’s identity.
The question is why the French – especially young people, because only 1% of people 15-24 report drinking wine regularly – seem to have given up on wine.
The story in The Local is here: https://www.thelocal.fr/20220502/analysis-why-the-french-are-drinking-less-and-less-wine/