grinner
06-02-2004, 09:49 AM
French show how to make wine food
By Philip Delves Broughton in Paris
(Filed: 02/06/2004)
Wine is to be reclassified as a natural food rather than an alcoholic drink under French law, if the combined forces of the country's wine industry and a majority of its MPs have their way.
The change would allow wine makers greater latitude in advertising their product at a time when French wine consumption is falling. Forty years ago, the average French consumer drank 134 bottles of wine a year, compared to only 77 today.
The fall is blamed on changes in working habits, the arrival of numerous new alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, and government anti-drinking campaigns.
The newspaper Le Monde reported yesterday that Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the prime minister, would be presented with draft legislation this month proposing that wine be reclassified as a food. Spirits and beer would continue to be classified as alcohol.
Spain introduced similar legislation last year to help its wine industry.
Laws introduced in 1991 to cut alcohol consumption in France ban winemakers from advertising using anything but the most basic facts about their product, with similes, metaphors and enticing images all outlawed.
Winemakers say the big brewing and distillery companies have a huge advantage in being able to fund publicity campaigns that circumvent the advertising laws, such as handing out free drinks in nightclubs.
Opponents of the reclassification of wine say it would make a nonsense of the government's aim to reduce alcohol consumption by 20 per cent by 2008.link (http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/06/02/wine02.xml)
Maybe the Brits will reclassify thick stouts as bread now as well... :D
By Philip Delves Broughton in Paris
(Filed: 02/06/2004)
Wine is to be reclassified as a natural food rather than an alcoholic drink under French law, if the combined forces of the country's wine industry and a majority of its MPs have their way.
The change would allow wine makers greater latitude in advertising their product at a time when French wine consumption is falling. Forty years ago, the average French consumer drank 134 bottles of wine a year, compared to only 77 today.
The fall is blamed on changes in working habits, the arrival of numerous new alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, and government anti-drinking campaigns.
The newspaper Le Monde reported yesterday that Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the prime minister, would be presented with draft legislation this month proposing that wine be reclassified as a food. Spirits and beer would continue to be classified as alcohol.
Spain introduced similar legislation last year to help its wine industry.
Laws introduced in 1991 to cut alcohol consumption in France ban winemakers from advertising using anything but the most basic facts about their product, with similes, metaphors and enticing images all outlawed.
Winemakers say the big brewing and distillery companies have a huge advantage in being able to fund publicity campaigns that circumvent the advertising laws, such as handing out free drinks in nightclubs.
Opponents of the reclassification of wine say it would make a nonsense of the government's aim to reduce alcohol consumption by 20 per cent by 2008.link (http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/06/02/wine02.xml)
Maybe the Brits will reclassify thick stouts as bread now as well... :D