[A] 130-page report presented to Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the prime minister, called for a programme to educate the young about wine and teach them to recognise a good vintage, while also warning them about the dangers of over-consumption.
UNDER threat from foreign competition, France’s wine industry is pushing for winemaking lessons in primary schools to educate children about the superiority of French methods.
The proposal was included in a report to the government last week by a parliamentary commission that also recommended the reclassification of wine as food to get round strict laws on the advertising of alcohol.
The 130-page report presented to Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the prime minister, called for a programme to educate the young about wine and teach them to recognise a good vintage, while also warning them about the dangers of over-consumption.
It called for an organisation to combat prejudice against French wine and fight competition. The report called wine a “part of our history, our identity, our civilisation”.
Raffarin, who commissioned the report, will now decide whether France should follow Spain and redefine wine as a foodstuff. This would free French wine from advertising restrictions that require health warnings and the advice to “consume it in moderation”.
Health workers, however, have warned that changing the law would fuel alcoholism. A debate has been raging over the role played by wine in alcohol-related illnesses.
Alain Rigaud, president of the National Association for the Prevention of Alcoholism and Addiction, argued that two-thirds of people treated in France for alcohol problems were dependent on wine.
“Advertising would just legitimise problem drinkers in their problem drinking,” he said.
The drive by the winemakers to make people drink more is the result of an erosion in their livelihoods caused by falling consumption at home and the popularity of Australian and American wines in France’s traditional export markets. Exports of French wine dropped by 7% in the first half of 2004, compared with the same period last year.
Another problem this year is that France is making too much wine. The harvest in 2004 is expected to be 19% higher than last year’s drought-hit production, lowering prices.
Complicating the effort to turn wine into food is another national campaign — the crackdown on drink driving, which has resulted in a 21% drop in road deaths. The goal is a 20% reduction in alcohol consumption by 2008.
Against this, Raffarin must balance the 300,000 jobs that are at stake in the vineyards. “We’re talking generalised panic,” said Michel Remonda, head of a winemakers’ association which is seeking more subsidies for producers.
So worried are the winemakers that they are considering initiatives they would have frowned upon only last year, including labelling bordeaux and burgundy wines according to grape variety to simplify things for consumers. There could be worse to come. “Why not put wood shavings in the wine to give it a woody taste?” asked Christian Gély, president of a winemakers’ committee. This was common among “new world” producers, he said.
The drop in exports has focused attention on a growing wine lake at home. The health lobby contends that efforts to shift this surplus are being made at the expense of the public. “What this amounts to,” said Rigaud, “is that we can’t export all the wine we want to, so French people will have to drink it.”
Addiction specialists are being drowned out by MPs from the winemaking regions who argue that French wine is losing out in supermarkets to spirits and beer. “If you’re not out there on the market, somebody else will just take your place with other products that can also affect health,” said Philippe Martin, an MP who helped to draw up the report.
It is food for thought and a decision is not expected until after the summer holidays, leaving Raffarin time enough to test the nutritional values of wine.
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Times Online
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