Serve no wine please. We’re French.
France is to many the cradle of wine and the world’s biggest wine producer (tying with Italy). Wine is also a major export product for the country. Not to mention the cultural heritage of wine and gastronomy. But how strange is it not then what goes on inside the country. The latest item of bemusement and ridicule is a proposal for a new law. Its initial purpose was to stop open-bars-evenings for students, fixed-fee events where youngster could (and would) drink as much as possible in as short a time as possible. The unfortunate thing is that the law has been written in so sweeping language that it will potentially make illegal all serving of wine at a fixed fee or free sampling. This would make illegal, for instance, serving wine tasting samples at wine shows or agricultural shows, serving wine at municipality gatherings, serving wine as part of a fixed-price all-inclusive menu in restaurants, serving wine samples to visitors at wineries…
Wine? Hush, don’t mention it. We’re French.
Since quite some time the French anti-wine lobby, spear headed by the state financed ANPAA (~70M€ budget), supported by the ironically named Loi Evin (Loi Pas de Vin?), has persecuted various forms of advertising and editorial content. It is of course illegal today in France to advertise for wine and show a happy couple or an attractive woman (and we’re not talking any lewd illustrations) on the picture. Unless it is a wine grower. Even more astonishing, the ANPA has also taken editorial articles on wine to court and had them condemned to pay a fine. The court considered the article to be equivalent to promotion and decided that it should have carried a warning text.
Wine on the internet? We’re French, we'll do like China: censorship of the internet.
In the same vein it is probable (the legal situation is not entirely clear) that it will be considered illegal to communicate about alcoholic beverages (wine, beer, spirits) on the internet. In consequence, French wine producers will have to take down their internet sites or risk being taken to court and fined. Or implement sophisticated filtering of visitors. We recently tried to visit the site of Champagne Perrier-Jouet. To access it you have to select the country you are in. We’re in France so we selected that. Et voilà: “You are not allowed to access this site due to the current regulation in France. EXIT.”
Do you read Asterix & Obelix? If you do you know what we mean: “Ils sont fou les français.”
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