Storm in a Wine Glass

French Vintners Ward Off Attack on Wine Culture

It was a close call. A draft law proposed by the French Health Ministry threatened to put a stop to wine tastings. But a massive protest by the country's vintners managed to torpedo the law at the last moment


Story from DER SPIEGEL Online
Published: March 6, 2009


It is certainly not difficult to get the French to take part in protests. But the coup landed by Roselyne Bachelot, France's minister of health, is nevertheless rare. In a proposal she wrote regarding the reform of France's hospital system, she also inserted an article meant to combat alcoholism. The result was a public outcry on two fronts.

Doctors and nurses took to the streets, most recently on Thursday, to vent their outrage over draconian cuts to medical personnel and the concurrent emphasis placed on health system profitability by the draft reform. And they were joined in their dissent - which finally bore legislative fruit late on Thursday night - by an unexpected ally: France's vintners.

The reason for their fury is point 24 in Bachelot's draft proposal, formulated at the beginning of this year. Rather than going after the traditional Health Ministry targets of cancer, Alzheimer's or a lack of organ donors, the passage seeks to limit the consumption of alcohol by France's youth. Specifically, Bachelot's target was the unlimited consumption of liquid libation in so-called "Open Bars." Teenagers tend to flock to these bars - because it allows them to drink as much as they can for a single fee paid upon entry.

The wording of the clause, however, got Bachelot into trouble. It called for the prohibition of "offering alcoholic drinks for free or for a single flat rate." Such a formulation would have meant that free samples of vintner delicacies in shopping malls would no longer have been allowed. Even worse, the "Lex Bachelot" would also have affected wine tasting at France's numerous wine festivals. French vintners wasted no time in attacking the draft law as being an attack on France's culinary traditions. They even spoke of an "attack on the culture."

To publicize their rage, wine makers took out whole page ads in French newspapers in which they called the anti-alcoholism offensive a "new step in the direction of prohibition." With France's multi-billion-euro business threatened, the movement quickly attracted the support of mayors, regional leaders and parliamentarians from across the country.

Even vague-sounding threats of violence weren't beneath the backers of French tradition. "If the issue goes awry in parliament, we will have no trouble at all mobilizing vintners," said Bernard Farges, spokesman for a federation of winemakers in Bordeaux. "But it could become difficult to control them."

On Thursday night, France's National Assembly dodged that potential bullet. Following a long, heated debate which pitted radically anti-alcohol lawmakers against supporters of France's table traditions, a compromise was reached at 1:30 a.m. on Friday morning. Flat-rate quaffing of hard alcohol will be banned in the future, but the gurgling of wine at markets, Chateaus and festival may continue. If, that is, the Senate -- France's upper house of parliament - agrees.

One assumes that it will. A majority of the 343 Senators, elected for terms of six years, don't belong to France's governing party. Furthermore, the Senate's home at the Palais du Luxembourg possesses one of the best wine cellars in all of Paris.


(Published: 10.03.2009.)