an analysis by Sophie Kevany

The recent announcement that the French 2008 wine harvest would be as small, or smaller, than last year, seems fitting, given new figures showing further decreases in domestic consumption. Since the halcyon days of the 90s, when French people,over the age of 14, drank up to 75 litres of wine per person, per year, consumption has slumped, first to 66 litres per person per year and now, the latest figures show, to 64 litres. If the total population of 61.5m is taken into consideration, that number falls below 53 litres.

Tarek Mhiri, who works with Viniflhor, the French agricultural body that compiled the wine consumption figures, says a multitude of reasons can be found for such a drop, including increasing health and drink driving concerns, as well as guilt. Others in the industry also blame limits on advertising and a switch to beer and spirits by younger drinkers.

However, the French wine industry itself has gradually become aware of other factors, such as the presence on the market of too many low quality wines, poor communications about what is in the bottle and an increasing need to defend what was once self evident - the benefits of wine drinking.

The industry is also starting to question whether French people even drink as much as the Viniflhor figures suggest, with wine professionals recently arguing that the statistics from Viniflhor do not factor out the wine bought and consumed by tourists.

Whatever the exact truth is, the fact is that France, which had an industry geared to supplying volumes for everyday drinking, is still struggling to cope in a world of occasional, ‘for pleasure’ drinkers.

The good news is that a more detailed look at the figures shows for the first time last year, French wine drinkers are spending more. “For the first time in 2007, values are up,” said Mhiri of Viniflhor. So while quantities bought by French households fell by 2.2% in 2007, the average price of each purchase was up by 3.1%.

It may not be enough to save large numbers of old style wine growers from going out of business or thousands more hectares of vines being uprooted. But, for those intent on producing less but better wines – and using all the marketing and communications tools at their disposal - it is certainly a positive sign.