Save the Wine!
OK, so wine isn’t exactly an endangered species like the humpback whale, but it’s being slaughtered mercilessly in Europe. Due to the popularity of Australian, Chilean, American, and South African wine, the European Commission is spending €131 million ($169 million) to turn nearly one billion bottles of French and Italian wine into fuel and disinfectant and will spend some €2.4 billion ($3.1 billion) digging up vineyards. This isn’t even the first time that a massive “crisis distillation” has occurred. Last year, the commission spent €500 million ($643 million) doing the same.
I’m finding it absolutely nuts that they’re willing to destroy all this wine just to keep prices up, though I suppose they want to keep a stranglehold on the supply of Old World wines. I say stop wasting public funds and ship the wine over here, so I can buy it at five bucks a bottle instead! I bet I’d drink more European wine if it were priced competitively.
