Deluge of Fine Wine Dismays the French

It is the ultimate irony. For the wine growers of Bordeaux, already suffering a financial crisis, the season has been too good. Though the quality appears to offer hope of salvation, the quantity of the 2006 vintage is causing problems.

This week the great wine fairs of France will open their doors and instead of being saved by huge profits on what experts say may be a vintage to rival that of last year - said to be the best for a century - winegrowers are likely to see prices collapse even further. 'Whatever we seem to do we get it in the neck,' said Mathieu Barbier, a Bordeaux-based winegrower. 'All the climatic conditions have been perfect and the grapes are magnificent... but the harvest is so large that prices are just going to dive again.'

In wine catalogues in the region, growers are trying every trick to disguise how low the prices are. 'They don't dare advertise bottles at €3 (£2) so they advertise double-sized bottles at €6,' said Remy Garuz, the president of the co-operative of Sauveterre de Guyenne. 'But the effect is the same.'

French winegrowers are struggling to come to terms with a decline in demand, as less wine is drunk locally and the international market turns to the production of the New World. Drastic measures such as tearing up vineyards to reduce production or distilling millions of litres of wine into industrial alcohol have so far had limited impact. 'Tearing up my vines would be like tearing out my heart,' said Barbier. 'I'd rather lose everything. And I probably will.'