Why don more American wines sell well in France?
The quality is there, but the price is awful. A bottle of American wine may sell at 150 francs ($20). French people will say, “For that I can have four bottles of a wine from Languedoc that is just as good.” The danger, for us [in France], isn’t from the States. The danger will come from Chile, Spain, or Italy, where they’re starting to make very high quality table wine at a very low price. The Eastern countries are also dangerous. Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary — all those countries have a really good tradition of wine-making. Communism [nearly] destroyed it. But since the fall of communism, they have redistributed land to the [wine growers], and they have started working again. They are starting to make quality wine at a very reasonable price. Q: Which Parisian restaurants have the best wine cellars? A: I like to go to a place where they may have only 30 wines, but where the wines are very well chosen. But in terms of size, the best wine cellar in France is certainly
