France’s traditional claim to be a nation of wine connoisseurs was undermined yesterday when a poll found that almost three quarters of its citizens knew little or nothing about the subject.
The findings fuelled fears that the country’s wine-drinking culture was in decline under the impact of the economic crisis and anti-alcohol laws.
Alarm was reinforced by the disclosure that le vin now divides the French. It used be a factor of social cohesion — drunk by all classes and age-groups, but it is now increasingly reserved for an urban elite who perceive drinking wine as a mark of distinction.
“What is new is that wine has come to be seen as an element of social worth,” said Rodolphe Wartel, director of Terre de Vins, the wine magazine that carried out the survey. “To succeed in life, you have to know a little about wine, like you have to know a little about classical music and cinema.”
He said that working-class people felt excluded by the new snobbery and were turning their backs on wine altogether. Families who once drank a bottle of cheap red with every meal were now consuming water, beer or fizzy drinks.
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Only 29 per cent of survey respondents said they knew about wine, and only 3 per cent perceived themselves as connoisseurs. A total of 28 per cent said they knew a little about the subject and 43 per cent said they knew nothing at all.
The British were now “perhaps greater connoisseurs than us”, Mr Wartel conceded.