The Beaujolais appellation has lost an average of 500 hectares per year over the last 10 years. The surface has gone from 9 676 hectares in 2005 to 5 190 hectares in 2014. For the Beaujolais Villages appellation it is the same thing. 2 200 hectares have been torn up in ten years, more than a third of the appellation. Sales are decreasing steadily, particularly in France. Export is also decreasing even though the export market buys more Beaujolais and Beaujolais Villages than the French do.
What is happening? Don’t we want Beaujolais wines any more? The truth is probably that we want to drink good Beaujolais wines and the producers who deliver such have its loyal clientele. While the others, often farmers who supply grapes or wine to the large négociants, get paid the minimum and eventually discover that they cannot make a living this way.
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