France: Slipping a Little But Still #1

Although he writes that French wine consumption is falling and that the vintners of la belle France are "hemorrhaging market share abroad," Slate's Mike Steinberger adds:

But don't put a cork in the country just yet; despite its woes, France is still the wine world's beacon and will surely remain so long into the future.

For one thing, it continues to churn out most of the planet's truly great wines . . . . I don't think there are many wine geeks who would dispute it.

. . . Exceptional wines are made elsewhere, including the United States, but no other place comes close to matching France for sheer number of bench-mark wines.