Dr Vino's wine blog

The Financial Times reports that Algeria will soon be flooding the world with vital liquid–wine that is. A country better known for its oil production than its wine, Algeria is set to crank up wine production again thanks to significant government investment to diversify the economy away from petroleum. A decade of violence in the 1990s wrecked the economy as well as the vines. But as a French territory, Algeria provided millions of hectoliters of bulk wine for the French market.

This second take for Algerian wine comes as oversupply in France and the rest of the world makes it a challenging and competitive global wine market. This time producers and the government recognize the need to produce quality as “Grand Crus Garage” and some will even be certified organic.

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Apparently there’s something romantic in the Algerian vineyard that’s not just intoxicating government officials: French film star and vigneron Gerard Depardieu has found a new love in his Algerian vineyard and they are now engaged. The old-vine has found some young fruit: if they do make it to the altar, his new bride would be younger than his two children from his first marriage.