Hip Tastes Blog

Suck It Up, France
filed under: Ramblings, Regional Spotlight

Wow, I was surprised to read in The Wall Street Journal that Cordier Mestrezat Grands Crus, a prestigious French producer of high-end Bordeaux, is making wine in a box...with a straw. Well, with four straws per box, to be exact. But what's even more interesting is the fact that the company is apparently launching the box in an effort to reach out to French "youths" (read: people in their twenties), who are drinking less wine over there than ever before. Hello, IRONY: all this, when at the same time American "youths" are drinking MORE wine than any generation before them. What's next, I wonder - a weird inversion of Franco-American youth culture, with American young 'uns sporting berets and carrying around baguettes in search of charcuterie and Nutella crepes, while - frightening thought - youthful Parisians hang out in Cubs caps fiending for "french" fries and hot dogs?

Decide for yourself here.

Posted by Courtney on August 28, 2007 12:01 AM

Comments

It would be interesting to plot "year to year change in youth (I can't help hearing Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny when I read that) drinking wine" in France vs. US against "year to year change of youth eating fast food." It was already pretty pathetic here, sad to see the changes afoot in France . . .

Posted by: swirlingnotions on August 28, 2007 03:26 PM
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I'll be curious to see what comes of their strategy - are "youth" really drawn to start drinking wine because of alternative packaging?

(Also - I'd actually trust the French a lot more if they liked beer and the Chicago Cubs! They can keep the berets!)

Posted by: Richard Shaffer on August 30, 2007 07:53 AM
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Lia - I agree it's a bummer to see it happening, but they've been quietly scarfing Hamburger Quick over there for some time under the radar!

Richard - spoken like a true Chicagoan (is that what they call you folks?) ;)

Posted by: Courtney Cochran on August 31, 2007 10:26 PM
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