(posted from ykos)
Too much wine for which there is no market? (Hard to believe but true.) In fact, the problem has reached crisis proportions, at least in Europe. In response, the European Union will likely be turning the excess into biofuel.
According to figures from the International Wine and Vine Organisation, a bumper crop in Australia, Argentina and Europe put global wine production at an estimated 287 million hectolitres in 2005, the highest since 1992.
BRUSSELS, Belgium, June 8, 2006 (ENS) – The European Union is about to distil more than six million hectolitres of French and Italian wine into undrinkable industrial alcohol because producers are making more wine than they can sell. Called crisis distillation, the conversion will allow the producers to make some money for their surplus, but EU officials say it indicates the need for deep reforms in the wine industry.
…The raw alcohol resulting from this distillation can only be used for industrial purposes or as biofuel in order not to disturb the market for potable alcohol.
Worldwide production has continued to increase in recent years, greatly outstripping consumption.
Global wine showed solid growth in volume terms in recent years, up nearly two percent to 25,066 million liters. Still red wine provided much of the impetus for volume growth in the world wine market over survey period, with sales rising nearly 12% between 1998 and 2003. However, volume growth of global wine was dampened by changing patterns of consumption in important Western European markets, like Italy, France, Portugal and Spain, as younger consumers moved away from traditional everyday wine drinking to more occasional consumption.
It sounds like the conversion of unsold production is a perfect solution. A tankful of 2002 bordeaux, anyone?
