A mudança chega a todo o lado

A revista Time de 30 de Outubro, na sua edição europeia, traz um muito interessante artigo sobre a situação mundial do vinho "Wine Woes".

"A decade ago, France exported three times as much wine as all the so-called New World producers put together; today it has been overtaken, and now sells about 15% less than they do."

"Europe as a whole now imports almost as much wine as it exports, something that would have been unthinkable a decade ago."

Como reagir a esta situação:
"The result is a growing stratification: good winemakers are investing heavily to get better; bad winemakers are facing the prospect of being squeezed out; and the rest, the vast majority of producers caught in the middle, are scrambling to build a better future - or selling up."

"We never bothered about consumers. now we're beginning to wake up. We understand that the consumer is what really matters. We can make the best wine in the world, but if nobody buys it, it's useless."

Quem, em Portugal, protesta contra as cadeias de distribuição, em vez de gritar, estude as alternativas:
"Marie Courselle knows all too well what he means. Château Thieuley, which her grandfather bought in the 1950s, used to sell about 30% of its output to big French retailers. Then, two years ago, it received a blunt message: Cut your prices, or we'll cut back on purchases. The Courselles refused, and their hypermarket sales dropped by half. They are now busy trying to build up a direct commercial network of their own. That means relying on a handful of merchants to sell into major markets, and doing the rest themselves. When they are not harvesting or tending their vines, Sylvie and Marie are on the road — to Luxembourg, Canada and elsewhere — touting their labels and looking for new ways to sell."

Apesar do artigo se centrar em França, na região de Bordeuax, ninguém apela à intervenção do Estado, reconhece-se o papel soberano do consumidor e procura-se mudar para ir ao seu encontro: "Winemakers are putting a new emphasis on appealing more directly to consumers, with less incomprehensible packaging and smarter marketing, but sometimes also with less lofty wines. There are moves afoot to reduce the myriad appellations and weed out some of the châteaus in order to make the wine more consistent and less of a puzzle. Some new brands are even being created that, controversially, are far more New World in spirit and taste than traditional Bordeaux."

O artigo pode ser lido aqui.