I purchased a handful of cheapo bottles (in the 3-8 euro range) from Franprix as a surprise to my wine-loving friends, hid the bottles from them and prepared blind tastings for them, only to discover that they regarded even the best of them to be undrinkable.
Perhaps this is simply due to a discrepancy between French and American palates? Perhaps Franprix is a bad place to buy wines? Perhaps a lot of things, but the notion that any $3 wine in France is universally regarded as 'decent' is not one I can vouch for.
In Paris yes it’s a bad place but in the producing regions they can have a nice local selection.
> $3 wine in France is universally regarded as 'decent' is not one I can vouch for.
You are right, even higher priced wines are hit or miss. Choosing wine in France is very complicated, compared to the US where price is a good taste indicator. But you can definitely find very good $3-5 bottles in France.
I have to disagree with one point though:
“American wine is better than French wine....” (gulp!).
But we're talking about what changes buying-behaviour, and it's important to consider that as a savvy shopper in the US you can go into a wine shop and buy everything under $20, and you'll find local wins. That's how you anchor your expectations about prices and quality. Now whether that's because of duty/import or it's because of shipping, or it's simply because only big brands will bother exporting is, or any other reason, those reasons are out of scope simply because a tariff isn't going to change them in the slightest.
That's for good wine. There are cheaper wines available of course.
If you're saying $20, you must be talking about a 6 pack ;)
This legend about french cheap wine is getting better and better everytime I hear it. 3-4€ is the low price for wine in a bottle. Some are decent, some are utter shit. But that's not "for good wine". That's entry level, which sometimes is decent.
I know some of the export wine is cooking-grade shit and people don't know the difference. But for people versed in wine in the US, the €3-4 bottles aren't going to cut it.
That's a huge selection covering all types of wine for as little as a few euros. Price is not a predictor of anything, there are both good and bad wines all over the place.
Wine is truly a commodity in France. There are very few people paying 10€ a bottle unless you're talking Champagne, that's not considered a wine.
edit: See for yourself https://www.carrefour.fr/r/boissons-et-cave-a-vins/cave-a-vi...
EDIT though I do like a nice Zinfandel, the sheer range offered by the French producers is unmatched.
From my experience in the UK, none of the French wines I could find in supermarkets exist in France. They appear to be specifically made for export and they are priced double or triple what a comparable bottle would be sold in France.
Given the US is a hell further than the UK, that's probably even worse, stranger wines and more pricey.
By what objective metric?
France's top exports to the US are aircraft parts and beverages (wine).
Since the US needs those parts to export the (assembled) planes, I think the aircraft lobby (e.g. Boeing) will press hard to prevent a tariff here because it'd raise rates across the board, so that leaves wine: My hunch is even a 100% tariff on wine is unlikely to dissuade anyone from purchasing French wine -- the American wine is better, so the only people buying it are people who really wanted French wine anyway oh là là.
I don't know yet what I think about a trade war with all of Europe though.