Cola-flavored wine for the younger audience. It’s come to this?

Have the French gone crazy? Following close on the heels of Winestar‘s French wine in a can — and not just plonk, but vintage red, white and rosé from such prestigious appellations as Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Rhone Valley — a French producer is introducing cola-flavored wine.

Say what?

Hausmann Famille, a branch of the firm Châteaux en Bordeaux, has introduced Rouge Sucette, a red wine doused with cola flavor targeted for a younger audience.

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In France, sad to say wine drinking has plummeted in recent years, particularly among the young, who are more attracted to beer and spirits. A BBC story by Hugh Schofield from Paris explains: “Recent figures merely confirm what has been observed for years, that the number of regular drinkers of wine in France is in freefall.� He wrote that in 1980, “more than half of adults were consuming wine on a near-daily basis. Today that figure has fallen to 17%. Meanwhile, the proportion of French people who never drink wine at all has doubled to 38%.�

But will a starter wine flavored with cola and playing to a younger generation’s sweet tooth lead to an interest in learning about — and appreciating — their wine heritage?

Rouge Sucette — “Red Lollipop� — is cheaper than wine. A bottle will cost just under $4 in France and will be sold primarily in hypermarchés (huge supermarkets). How many Red Lollipop drinkers will graduate to something more sophisticated is not yet known.

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But I have to say the logic seems flawed. Why not go with your best shot — maybe a pretty little Côtes-du-Rhône or Languedoc rouge at an affordable price? Or how about rosé as a starter wine?

Now I can’t say for sure what Rouge Sucette tastes like. According to Victoria Moore writing in the British newspaper The Telegraph, it’s “75% wine with the balance sugar, water and cola flavouring.�

I can’t quite wrap my head around red wine plus cola, though I do see the point of rum and cola. In this case, I’ll take my wine straight and my cola straight. The alcohol is just 9%, so for those seeking a buzz, this is wine light.

Moore points out that the French have already embraced flavored wines, such as grapefruit-flavored rosé or passion-fruit-flavored whites. In fact, in France, she says, “they drank 15 million bottles of flavored wine last year and that figure is expected to double in 2013.�

And we thought White Zinfandel was bad.

Incroyable!

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Twitter: @sirenevirbila