| There is no doubt that the French wine industry is | | | | has lately been perceived that the French wine |
| one of the largest wine industries in the world, | | | | industry is losing some of its competitiveness and |
| equaling Italy and Spain. The French wine industry | | | | subsequently its business, due to the strict |
| is leading, along with Italy in terms of maximum | | | | regulations. |
| quantity of wine produced, producing 23.1% of | | | | Keeping pace with the increasing competition, |
| the total wine in the world. Many of the French | | | | there has been a change in the quality patterns of |
| wines rank among the best wines in the world, | | | | wine production in France. Earlier, the French wine |
| due to their quality attributes. Within France, | | | | used to be classified into two categories. The first |
| Bordeaux can be regarded as the most important | | | | category is the complex and traditional AOC first |
| region of wine production and contributes | | | | class wines and the second category is of the |
| massively to the French wine industry. In fact, | | | | ordinary table wine. The ordinary table wine is |
| Bordeaux wines are famous all over the world for | | | | considered to be of little importance to both the |
| their quality. Other regions such as Burgundy and | | | | domestic French wine market as well as the |
| Champagne often undergo scarcity effects due | | | | international wine market. In addition to these two |
| to limited vineyard area and as a result, these | | | | categories, due to the rising demands of the |
| wines end up costing higher than the wines from | | | | international wine market, a new category of |
| other regions. | | | | medium quality wines has emerged of late. This |
| The quality of the wine produced by the French | | | | comprises of the country wines or the vins de |
| wine industry is regulated by the AOC. This has | | | | pays and the grape variety denominated wines or |
| proved to be a strong constraint in the global | | | | the vins de cépage. |
| wine market as competition is quite stiff and it | | | | |