The vultures circle-

Posted on | August 20, 2005

Received this evening a fax-mailing from a merchant of wines name of DEPOT STOCK. Over and above the poetry that this name inspires, I give you the best passages:

« Specialised in the de-stocking of wine, we buy significant lots of all qualities../..We only buy lots “CRD’ [capsule reprèsentatives de droits], destined to be resold in France, in clearance sales and in the small local “èpiceries’-/- Our purchase price cannot exceed Euros0.80, we concentrate on mass market../..we await your proposal.

Yes, you read right, 80 cents MAXIMUM (understood that they also look to pay less). 5.24 of our “francs’ disappeared. If one took out the bottle, the cap, the cork, the label, the bottling, the box and the pallett, one might legitately pose some questions-

1. What remains for the “vigneron’ to live on? `What returns and what compromises must he make to slide into such a world?

2. What interest does he have to continue to work the vine?

3. Is the alimentary security of the consumer guaranteed at this price?

4. Where can one procure a video of the consumer’s grimace after he’s swallowed such a nectar?

And so, one can only make the terrible acknowledgement: in 2005, a lot of French people accept paying more for their water than their wine.

Hervè Bizeul

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