French parliament will debate early in March a proposed law that carries an article banning promotional sales of alcoholic beverages as a way of curtailing binge-drinking among youths.

The wine sector fears the cure may be worse than the disease and could lead to a ban on wine tastings at a time of limits on advertising and plans to attack Internet sales.

“It’s unthinkable, it would be a disaster and many people in France could lose their job. Tastings are an integral part of promoting wine and educating people to consume with reason,” said Marie-Christine Tarby, head of the Wine and Society body.

Tarby said that France was less impacted by binge drinking than other countries and wine played no role in that phenomenon.

The wine trade and French health authorities have an uneasy relationship that led two journalists, Denis Saverot and Benoit Simmat, to title a 2008 book on the sector In Vino Satanas!

This means the devil is in the wine, a play on the Latin saying “in vino veritas” that means the truth is in wine.

“While every Japanese, Chinese and American knows that France is the country of great wines, France today wants to abdicate its Bacchic pre-eminence,” they wrote.

“All of France? No, the glum France, that has replaced the glorious ‘Liberty, Equality and Brotherhood’ with ‘Prevention, precaution and public health,’” they added.

For many people, wine is part and parcel of French culture and history.

The sector employs 340,000 people and wine is among the top 10 export revenue earners. Wine and vines are part of the attractions that make France a top world tourism destination.

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