Friday, September 16, 2005

la foire aux vins

The other day, Carrefour, the French Wal Mart, left in my mailbox one of their frequent advertisements. On its cover was a bottle of wine. On the next 55 pages were about a thousand more. The pages were almost dripping wet. Everything was in there, from Bordeaux over Loire to Rhône, Provence and Languedoc. Red, white, and bubbly. Wines from two euros all the way up to 110. Vins de pays and grand cru classé. Haut Médoc, St. Émilion, Mâcon, Alsace, Lubéron, Corbières, and a hundred more appelations. It seemed like the entire world of wine was assembled for my shopping pleasure.

The entire world of French wine, that is. Because out of the 56 six pages, a total of one was devoted to international wines. Which is, incidentally, the ratio one finds in any randomly picked grocery store. You can buy any wine you want, as long as it is French.

So I'll take the brochure as an inspiration. Maybe I'll find some wine I want to give a try. Then I'll go to the wine shop across the street and stock up. Carrefour won't see my money. I didn't shop at Wal Mart when I lived in the US, and I will certainly not start such a thing here.

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