According to some wine merchants, this year sales of wine bottles have increased significantly.
Faced with the closure of restaurants and drinking establishments, the French no longer hesitate to pay the price for watering meals taken at home, as Europe 1 has seen at a Nantes wine merchant.
REPORTAGE
Confinement, curfews, restaurants and bars closed ... During this very dark year 2020, the French had to reinvent their little moments of pleasure in the face of the Covid-19 epidemic.
But the time spent at home, rather than in a restaurant or in a bar, made people happy: wine merchants saw their sales to individuals explode, and not just at Christmas time.
Théo, a Nantes resident in his thirties, is now less careful about the label and for good reason, with spending significantly reduced this year by force of circumstances, the young man has redirected his pleasure purchases.
"I never buy myself a bottle at 30 euros, but now I'm ready to do it. As I no longer go to the bar, I can afford to buy better quality bottles," he explains to Europe 1.
>>
Find all the newspapers of the editorial staff of Europe 1 in replay and podcast here
Consume more and better
This trend, wine merchants are the first to take advantage of it, as Célina, saleswoman at Cave Nature in the center of Nantes, explains.
"We have increased our turnover by more than 30%, with three to four bottles per basket," she says.
Buyers consume more but also better, this is one of the great lessons of this health crisis.
"I now only buy organic wine, which was not the case before", confides Delphine, a customer.
So catastrophic in many sectors, the Covid-19 has not brought down the wine industry.
"In the midst of the confinement period, we have opened a new franchise. 2020 has been a good year for us," confirms Célina.
And there is no shortage of projects: Cave Nature plans to open two new stores in the coming months.