FRANCE: Whine of the Century?

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April is the cruelest month, as French vintners, especially in Bordeaux, have again learned. Instead of spring showers came the worst frost in more than 30 years, killing early buds in the vineyards. First assessments halved production forecasts for the year -- a loss of almost $690 million. Said Hubert Bouteiller of the Interprofessional Council for Wines in Bordeaux: "In one fell swoop, the work of a year's pruning was destroyed."

But chill winds are not ill winds for all. After three consecutive good harvests, the market is glutted with French wine, leaving producers and merchants with huge stocks. Says Jacques Salle, editor of the Vintage Yearbook: "There's just too much good wine out there." So are the cries from Bordeaux ones of anguish or happiness? Says Peter Mayle, a British author and oenophile: "I think ((French producers)) looked at all their unsold bottles and thought up this scare so the English would worry about how little wine they had and would rush out and buy more." Besides, the vines are expected to produce second and even third buddings. And frost need not doom a crop to vinegary sneers. "Remember," says Salle, "1945 and 1961, both frost years, produced great vintages."