The New York Times has an interesting story on the wine industry in Europe and the problems of subsidizing an industry. Among these are over-production and poor quality.
Efforts to shore up the European wine industry by tearing out thousands of acres of vineyards and scrapping some subsidies have set the stage for a fierce debate Wednesday as Europeans contemplate the cost of their love affair with the grape.
Vigorous competition from New World producers and complex regulations in Europe have helped create a vast amount of surplus wine, leading also to problems of quality and to increased spending to ease the surplus. To address those problems, the executive arm of the European Union has proposed overhauling the industry by reducing production, cutting subsidies and providing incentives to efficient winemakers.
But winemaking is regarded as part of national cultures in many of the bloc’s 27 members, and efforts to reduce the size of the industry have touched raw nerves like few other European proposals.
Europe, of course, still produces some fabulous wines but much of the lesser wines can be plonk and New World wines continue to gain popularity in the European market.
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