The Telegraph : By Henry Samuel, Paris
French consumption of wine has sunk to a new record low with the average adult now consuming barely a glass a day, a major consumption survey has found.
The study appears to confirm France’s gradual shift from being a nation of heroic wine drinkers to one increasingly turning to fizzy drinks and fruit juices at meal times.
France’s average wine consumption has fallen from a massive 160 litres per adult, per year in 1965 to 57 litres in 2010,roughly the equivalent of a drop from three glasses to one glass per person, per day.
Public awareness campaigns over the rise of “le binge drinking” coupled with a sluggish economy were cited as factors leading to fewer than one in five French adults now drinking wine almost every day, according to research carried out every five years for the ministry of agriculture. The survey, published this week, found that the number of people who drank wine on a daily basis had fallen to 17 percent in 2010, down from 21 percent five years earlier.