or Wine Armageddon!
The parlous state of many of Europe's wine industries has led to impending EU legislation requiring all vineyard owners to grub up and reduce their vineyards by at least a couple of hectares each. This process alone is going to cost an incredible £1.65 billion in subsidies, paid for by the taxpayer of course.
This enormous amount is 50% greater than the whole of Chile's wine exports, that this year are expected to reach the magic £1bn for the first time.
Chile is just one of the so-called New World of wine producing countries, who together with Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, California and its South American neighbours (most notably Argentina) are creating a meltdown in the global wine community. Quite simply there is too much wine being made.
As a result of the current vogue for New World wines many French vineyard owners have a full year's production lying unsold in the cellars with nowhere to put the incoming vintage. The only realistic and immensely costly option is to send their wine to the distillery converting their life's work into industrial alcohol, a mind-numbing experience.
Many, after several generations of proud, winemaking prowess, are finally throwing in the towel, selling up, and moving to the Mediterranean, often entering the leisure industry, an altogether more rewarding and less strenuous occupation.
The dichotomy is however that whilst much of the generic Appellation Controllee wines of the Languedoc, Rhone and Bordeaux remain unsold, the fortunes of the prestige end of the market, that of Grand Cru Burgundies, Cru Classe Bordeaux and Premier Cru Champagnes has never been healthier, with remarkable prices being achieved and whole vintages selling out within days of release.
New markets in China, Russia and other emerging Asian countries have fuelled the clamour for prestige wines from the nouveau-riche entrepreneurial classes there, where only the very best will do.
In general wine consumption has never been higher. We, here in the UK, are doing our bit by drinking a steadily increasing 22 litres each a year. The problem for the EU authorities is that not much of that comes from France, Italy or Spain.
The instantly recognisable fruit-packed wines from the New World have seduced the tastebuds of a new generation of wine drinker so convincingly that the seemingly green, slightly unripe, slow to develop wines from the classic European vineyard areas, are seen as unappealing and of poor quality. Few keep wine to mature nowadays, thus those requiring a degree of bottle age can appear both austere and unapproachable.
Similarly the lack of vintage variation evident in Chilean, Australian and South African wines, when compared to those of northern Europe, provide an almost soupy reliability that is easier for the less aspirational wine consumer to understand and appreciate.
Without doubt New World wines are fantastic with food, especially the full-bodied, high alcohol reds. Here in the UK our passion for pasta is often accompanied by a bottle of Shiraz from Australia instead of a Chianti Classico from Italy. Our winter casseroles are a perfect match for the Cabernet Sauvignons and Merlots of Chile or South Africa as opposed to a Cotes du Rhone Villages from France.
Even in white wines we're more likely to drink a crisp New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, and not Sancerre with a healthy summer salad or else an affordable Californian Chardonnay instead of over-priced white Burgundy.
Another factor that has undeniably assisted the rise in popularity of New World wines is their clarity and innovation of labelling. Grape varieties such as Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay have become instantly recognisable and form the prime aspect of wine purchase decision making for the new wine lover. As a result of this clarity, although secondary to it, wine regions like Coonawarra and Barossa in Australia, Maipo and Casablanca in Chile and of course the Napa valley in California have become much sought-after.
Seemingly resolute wine legislation in Europe has long opposed change that could have enabled France, Italy and Spain to compete with the New World invaders. Only recently and rather begrudgingly has the decision been made to allow Shiraz, as opposed to Syrah to be used on French wine labels for example.
To many this is just another form of dumbing down, kneeling to the overpowering might of the supermarkets, or just plain desperation. To other, more forward thinking observers, it is a way of dragging the haughty, self-satisfied and opinionated European vignerons into the 21st century.
I am sure that history will relate that the first decade of our third millennium represented the most radical change to the global wine industry since the invention of the bottle itself.
A time when the massive schism felt between that of the wine royalty and the commoner was ne'er so great. A time when those proud traditions of old, were eschewed in the pursuit of the popular. When excellence became ordinary but affordable.
There are many good New World wines but very few great ones. Technology has reduced the potential for making poor wine in almost any corner of the world, but has done little for idiosyncrasy, individuality and passion.
Mass consumption of wine, once the preserve of the knowing, has done little for knowledge of the craft, rendering it the new global brand, basically Shiraz from anywhere.
As Champagne owners busily buy up vineyards in the Kent and Sussex countryside and many of the huge Australian wine corporations hedge their bets by investing heavily in the emerging vineyard regions of South Africa, a new order is being firmly carved into the coalface of the wine world.
But what of the nobility, that of the fine chateaux and domaines of Bordeaux and Burgundy? As I write this July 14th approaches, Bastille Day. Perhaps the finely gilded, ridiculously expensive Cru Classes need to take just a tiny bit of interest in the changes that are occurring around them. Indeed there is precedent for their "let them eat cake" attitude.