TOKYO, June 9 (AFP) — Reeling on the ropes in export markets from the onslaught by their Australian, Californian and Chilean rivals, French wine makers and merchants are fighting back by adopting the methods of the New World.

A report published last year by civil servant and wine expert Jacques Berthameau, which called for a boost to branding and consolidation of production into fewer denominated regions, first sounded the alarm.

Since then the French industry has begun to wake up to what is at stake — the loss of France’s position as the world’s leading wine nation with 40 per cent of the global market.

Foncalieu, an association of 20 cooperatives representing 2,200 wine growers in the southwestern Languedoc-Roussillon region, sells 80 per cent of its production overseas, mainly to Britain, Germany and the United States.

“We have always been just that little bit ahead” of the domestic competition, said Foncalieu’s deputy chief executive, Jean-Luc Faure.

This year, the association used the three-day Winexpo Asia Pacific which ended Thursday to showcase products which “break with tradition by, for example, using gold on the label instead of Bordeaux (purple), to show that in the Languedoc too we can innovate,” he said.

In Britain, where sales of French wine were on the verge of being overtaken by Australian products two years ago, “French exports have been growing again since 2001 thanks to a strategic shift towards a simpler range based on the brand concept,” he said.

At Foncalieu, which accounts for 9,000 hectares (22,230 acres) under vines producing some 700,000 hectolitres (18.2 million gallons) of wine annually, they claim to have already adopted a “New World approach”, two or three years ago.

The association’s head of vineyards is an Argentinian agronomist and the wine-making process is overseen by an oenologist who trained in Chile.

“We are trying to make a modern, quality wine with plenty of fruit which is easier to drink along with an innovative, client-oriented marketing approach,” said Alan Tamplin, head of Asian marketing.

The aim is also to identify all the association’s products strongly with the “Foncalieu en Languedoc” brand.

“Brands are a point of reference, an assurance for the consumer and French producers are (not) weak in this department compared with the New World,” acknowledged Faure.