INTERESTING REPORT FROM THE WINE SPECTATOR:

Are Americans still holding a grudge? For the third consecutive four-week period, sales of French table wines in the United States have declined substantially, following drops in March and April.

French wine sales dropped 26.2 percent in case volume and 27 percent in dollar value for the four weeks ending May 18, 2003, compared to the same period a year ago, according to retail data from Information Resources Inc. That’s the biggest decrease in French wines for any four-week period since the calls for a boycott heated up in response to France’s refusal to support war in Iraq; for the 12 weeks ending May 18, the decline averages out to 23.9 percent in volume and 24 percent in dollar value.

At the same time, sales of table wines from around the world have been on the rise compared to a year ago. According to IRI, overall wine sales increased 4.4 percent in volume and 1.5 percent in value for the four weeks ending May 18. Those numbers would have been even higher if it had not been for the drop in French wines. IRI’s InfoScan tracking service collects scanner data from multiple retail outlets in the United States.

I’ve become quite partial to Chilean, Argentinean, and Australian wines myself.

UPDATE: Reader Peter Ingemi suggests that a lot of people preferred other wines but bought French labels out of snobbery or insecurity, and are now feeling free to buy the many excellent cheaper wines out there. That’s very possible. The French are likely to face more of that, if stories like this one keep appearing:

LYON, France — For the second straight game, fans at the Confederations Cup booed when the “The Star-Spangled Banner” was played before the United States took the field.

Have I mentioned the many excellent wines from California?