Has the Americanization of Europe Led to the Decline in French Wine Consumption?

October 8 2007

Has the Americanization of Europe Led to the Decline in French Wine Consumption?

It’s an increasingly frequent occasion that wine is used as an anecdote or crutch in new release business books. In fact, it seems to be an indication of the ongoing infiltration of wine as a part of our American lifestyle. Unfortunately, in contrast, as presented in a new book, Microtrends by Mark J. Penn, it discusses wine consumption declines as a part of the French lifestyle and it lays the blame, in part, on the U.S.’s exported cultural affinity for being “on-the-go.”

It’s an interesting paradox.

“Microtrends” is a recently published book that highlights some 70 + small trends that have the opportunity to become larger societal changes. The author, Penn, is credited with coining the term “soccer mom” during Bill Clinton’s 1996 presidential campaign, a phrase so ubiquitous now that it lends credibility to his social insights around things like childhood vegetarianism and our increasing reliance on medical self-diagnosis.

In one such “micro-trend” called “French Teetolers,” Penn, very interestingly notes the decline in French wine consumption—a fact that most are well in tune with—, but the interesting factoid that he adds to it is something I haven’t seen before: a notion that actually lays the blame at the feet of the U.S. and our exported culture, amongst several factors.

Penn notes as background:

Over the course of the past forty years, no country on earth has cut its alcohol consumption more than France. While consumption of beer and spirits has stayed basically steady in France, the per capita consumption of alcohol from wine fell from 20 liters in 1962 to about 8 in 2001. In glasses of wine, that translates into about 235 per person per year, down from about 425.

Here’s the interesting part, as Penn notes:

One reason for the dwindling wine consumption is the acceleration of the French meal. In 1978, the average French meal lasted 82 minutes. Today, the average French meal has been slashed down to 38 minutes—and it’s more likely than a meal anywhere else in Europe to include McDonald’s burgers and fries. Wine is a victim of the disappearance of the leisurely meal. It is not the target of the change, but the decline in wine consumption is a by-product of the mergence of the faster, on-the-go lifestyle.

That takes a second to get your head around.

So, let’s see, total American wine consumption is anticipated to become #1 in the world by 2010 (and still a longs ways off from the French on a per capita basis) and a part of our movement towards this is the increasing Europeanization of our food and drink culture—a respect for the meal, foods that are sourced locally, wine that is “of place,” a recognition that American lifestyles are too “fast;” a need to slow down and enjoy food, life and each other. And, in this increase in our wine consumption tied to lifestyle reasons, the French are actually accelerating the pace of their life at the detriment of drinking wine.

So, what we’re taking from them in our cultural expansion, they are taking from us in reverse—our benefit and to their detriment. Interesting.

Do the French need another reason to hold us ‘Ugly Americans’ in contempt? I don’t think so, but just the same I’m going to buy a bottle of French wine, cook a leisurely dinner with my wife, enjoy her company, and toast life in the temporary slow lane. Somehow I imagine my French doppelganger is currently working late and hitting the drive-thru.