For any other country having a TV channel devoted to wine is… no big deal. In France it requires to go through a major administrative work. Why is that? First of all, because wine is now considered as a very dangerous drink leading to alcoholism and major health problems. Second, because the French law require to ask “permission” to open a new channel to a very special authority overlooking the media, the CSA (Audiovisual Committe). Last but not least, the lobbies against wine are very strong.

This new TV channel, Edonys, just applied for permission to start working. Its mission statement is to produce films on the culture of wine in France but also all over the world. The channel will be broadcasted in Europe and at least in two languages, French and English. The project is very appealing to any wine lover, whether professional or consumer. That’s why the initiators of the idea are already lobbying to get the support of the wine community in France. Let’s hope the project will meet with the approval of the Audiovisual Committee.

Technology is not always a dream. A few years ago, I opened an account on Facebook. It was moderately active as I was busy writing a book, consulting, teaching and interviewing people for articles. But it worked: I received invitations from friends, posted a couple of things on my wall and invited friends to join me. And suddenly the “bug”: I couldn’t accept any invitations sent to me through this account. I must confess I’m not the most patient person when technology fails me. I started “fuming” as my dear and much missed mother-in-law used to say, complaining and pestering my own personal technological wizard to get help. Even HE couldn’t figure out what was wrong with my account. I then started pestering younger friends, specialists of Facebook and other networks of Web 2.0, such as Myriam Ballarati, one of the very few European experts on virtual worlds.

What’s the solution? Myriam and my personal wizard told me to deactivate my account and open a new one. Great idea, in spite of the fact I had to start over all again. Here we go: new account open, I start inviting my friends to join it. It worked perfectly and I thought I was safe and on the road again! This morning, bad news: one of my contacts invited me to join him on Facebook. I clicked innocently on the link and… bingo! I went directly to my old account! I almost had a fit! Facebook left my account open and people could still send their invitation to me through it. I deactivated this account again and I hope it will be the last time. Did anybody go though such a nightmare? It’s already hard to build a good and strong network all over the world with trusted friends, partners and colleagues without being bothered by lapses in technology and know-how of the so-called providers! Am I still fuming? Yes, I’m even ranting! Sorry!

Is France a drama Queen? Certainly, if you consider what happened about this so called law on public health. Let’s see the milestones of the drama: two days before the law on public health was supposed to be voted by our MP, the Health Institute published a report saying that one glass a day of wine was driving the drinker to cancer. Vintners, cancer specialists, wine consumers rose to the challenge and immediately went to battle. Result: the law ruled that selling alcohol to young people under 18 was forbidden and allowed wine advertising on the Net, except on sites targeting young people.

There is now an other outcry: some people accused the vintners and their representatives to have “lobbied” in favor of wine and by doing so to endanger the health of the French population. Who is right? Who is wrong? I don’t know. I just feel very sad to see our wine culture denigrated and criticized by people who might not have discovered its beauty. It reminds me very sadly of those judges of the 19th century who censored the beautiful poetry of Baudelaire or the work of Zola on moral grounds (like our wine censors). The future will let us know who was right: the vintners whose bottles will be enjoyed by the next generation or the censors!

France is currently debating a law on how to save its health coverage system and prevent various costly diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular accidents and so on. First culprit: wine consumption. I suppose drinking a glass of whiskey a day or a glass of vodka is much better for your health!

Whatever the culprit or the intentions of the government behind this targeting of the wine industry, I suspect France doesn’t to find the right answer to the problem of binge drinking among young people. The answer is called: education. In countries where drinking wine is not denounced as a crime, alcoholism decreased while wine consumption increased. Weird? Not so much! Education was the key word. Young children learned how wine was made, how it was part of their history, their culture and their traditions, that it was part of a high quality lifestyle. Grown up, they knew to choose wine, consume it with moderation and appreciate it for what it was: the result of a difficult work done by people dedicated to a high quality product.

This is so true that some French people are at the origin of very original and innovative ideas. The small but rising Chaors appellation is one of them. Its Marketing Director, Jeremy Arnaud, launched last year the Malbec Academy in partnership for the Wine MBA program of the Dijon Business School, under the direction of Pr. Joëlle Brouard. Each year, the students spend a week in Cahors to get both a theoretical and practical knowledge of the Cahors region and wines: in the morning, they follow seminars on the international strategy of the Cahors appellation and brainstorm with the speakers on various subjects. In the afternoon, they visit properties and meet producers and negociants. To complete this “splash course”, each student is invited to spend the week with the family of a producer or a negociant.

The program takes place from March 23rd to March 27th in Cahors. I’ll be one of the keynote speakers among many others: Jérémy Arnaud, Marketing Director of the Cahors Appellation (UIVC), Pr. Joëlle Brouard and Pr. Jean-Guillaume Ditter, authors of a comparative study on Cahors and Chablis; the journalist Jérôme Baudouin for his comparative study on Cahors and Australia, Pr. Valérie Olvier on agricultural management; Pr. Jean-Christian Tulet author of a documentary on Cahors wines; Franck Lederer, Financial Director of the Taillan Group, to mention only a few.

This initiative shows how education and not repression is the best way to answer the problem.

At the exact time a law endangering the French wine trade is being discussed, a new body will be introduced in France: the Committee of… Wine Travel. This committee has for mission to promote our wine regions to domestic and foreign tourists. I’m sure everybody will enjoy visiting a winery or a wine region without being able to taste or buy the local wines!

Tonight during our New Wine Consumer Internet live radio show, we’ll discuss the threat on the wine industry. Join us to share your opinion on this new French absurdity!

A few years ago, the French Paradox thrilled Americans (and French as well): by drinking a glass of wine a day and eating some olive oil, a lot of fruit and vegetable, fish (rather than meat), men and women could stay healthy for many years and avoid the dreaded and dreadful cardiovascular disease. And now here is the bad news: one glass of wine a day will cause cancer! The study by France’s National Cancer Institute (INCA) says that consuming just a 125ml glass of wine increases the chance of developing mouth, larynx, esophagus, colon-rectum and breast cancer by 168%.

Who should we trust? Europeans have been drinking wine for centuries with their meals. Wine is part of our culture and tradition. Poets, writers, musicians, painters celebrated its history, beauty and positive influence on Western civilization. We, Europeans, are blessed with the beautiful landscapes of our wine countries: travel along the gorgeous Rhone Valley, cross the hills and the valleys of Burgundy, admire the fabulous landscape of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire painted by Cézanne near Aix-en-Provence and now the place of one of our Controlled Appellation areas. More South, did you go to Rioja in Spain or in Tuscany in Italy?

As soon as this report of the INCA was published, a general outcry was heard all over France. Wine consumers expressed their disbelief: wine is not bad for your health – certainly less than all the chemicals, salt and fat in processed food sold freely in every supermarket. Forums, blogs, answers to articles expressed the same irritation to the dumb propaganda. Respected physicians and researchers published answers to the study, showing how the data were manipulated by the authors of the INCA study. They contested its results and conclusions. Vintners are considering suing the National Institute of Cancer for “misleading information” and for damaging their image and business.

Why all this noise? This week the French Parliament will discuss a new law on alcohol: how to prevent binge drinking by young people, advertising wine on Internet, suppress the “open bars” (which will outlaw all wine fairs, public tastings and tastings in vineyards), how to save money by avoiding dangerous behaviour such as drinking a glass of wine. When is the French government going to prevent us from crossing a street, shaking hand with a colleague or a friend (hands are the most common vector of contamination when you sneeze or cough) or forcing us to exercise 3 hours a day after work? All for our good, of course!

Let’s be serious: as grown-ups and responsible human beings, we have the right to our own privacy. We have the right to decide what kind of lifestyle we want to live without interference of our government. We are very privileged to be living in countries at peace and rich enough (even with the current crisis) to worry about health and prevention. Does it give the right to our government to decide if I should have or not a glass of wine or a piece of meat? I don’t think so. I think our money would be much better spent to help better causes.

Wine.com decided to leave Michigan to protest a new shipping law. Indeed the state passed a law banning retailers from shipping wines to consumers, and specifically the use of third-party delivery services such as FedEx and UPS. Since wine.com just launched aspecial delivery service, it is againts it best interests to keep working in Michigan.

Of course, consumers are upset but seem to be used to the decisions of their legislators. Some attorneys on the other hand claim that the new law is open to challenge, because the Supreme Court has ruled that states should not make it economically impossible for a company to do business. There might be hope for Michigan wine consumers!

December 5, 1933: great day for American wine drinkers. Prohibition has ended. For many Americans, Prohibition is just a word, something they heard about and that happened in the distant past. In fact, Prohibition is still impacting the wine business of the 21st Century.

When Repeal passed, it let individual states set their own rules, creating the jungle of laws that continues to complicate wine shipping. It also had a strong influence on the American mind as it created the confusion between use and abuse of alcohol. It destroyed the burgeoning Californian wine industry and set the standards for very poor wines for several decades. Indeed, during the Prohibition, most wineries turned to grape growing and set for strong thick skinned grapes that could travel across the country – not the best for fine wines. The American wine industry was down: in 1920, there were about 700 wineries operating in California; in 1933, there were about 40 left! In the two decades following Repeal, wine was strong, sweet and… very bad. Wine lovers had to wait for the 60s and for inspired wine makers like Mondavi to taste good quality wines.

Prohibition is a sad time in the American history but it showed that it is difficult to totally destroy a product that graced fine tables for centuries and is part of our culture. I raise my glass to wine and its legacy! Cheers!

The question mark is important. But it shows that the French administration, represented by the Ministry of Health, seems to be ready to put an end to an incredibly stupid story.

In 1991, the “Loi Evin”, a law edicted by the then Ministry of Health Claude Evin, banned all advertising of alcohol in magazines, TV, radio, billboards. Internet was not yet considered a real media and, as such, was not mentioned in the law. Since it was not mentioned, a court ruled that you could not advertise on the Internet. Second step: a court ordered Heineken to close its French site as it was advertising on alcohol. Third step: in November 2007, a magazine published an article recommending four Champagne brands for the holidays to its readers. A court ruled it as advertising and fined the newspaper. The court stated that even informative articles related to alcohol had to mention the legal warning on the danger of alcohol. So much for freedom of the press! Some newspapers and magazines complied fearing a heavy fine.

Today there is this piece of good news brought by Decanter Bordeaux correspondent Jane Anson: “The French minister of health supports changing the Evin Law to allow wine advertising on the internet.” A CIVB spokeperson told Anson: “While we welcome the news that the internet may now be a legal method of promotion for winemakers, this has not yet been made official – and is not the only threat to French wine.” It is unfortunately true but at least now, we have a little hope.

On my list of “summer readings”, there was Wine Politics. How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters and critics Influence the Wines We Drink by Tyler Colman. Quite a program! And a surprising one! I knew DrVino blog and enjoy reading it. I never commented – being a little shy but always liked the spirited and hot posts and debates. I knew Dr Vino was an academic and a fellow teacher as well as a fellow doctor since he holds a Ph.D.

Because of all those similitudes I read with a lot of interest his opus and especially enjoyed the picture of the author with the Paris Notre-Dame cathedral in the background! Tyler Colman is an expert on French and American wines, laws and marketing strategies. His constant parallel between the two worlds is very enlightening and brings a few surprises. French-born I usually rant about the French administration, its stupid regulations and how the system slows down (and even prohibits) any kind of initiatives. Guess what? America is not any better: the pages on how the environmentalists prevented the development of many vineyards is absolutely amazing. And don’t even mention the war between “Baptists and Bootleggers” – a fascinating chapter – or the Prohibition days.

In this book, everybody will learn something: marketers, wine lovers, winemakers, corporations and consumers. After reading the book, you’ll know how the bottle you bought ended up on the shelf of a supermarket or a very exclusive wine store, why the wine you heard one of your friends say wonders about is not available in your area and why this wine you know is plonk is all over the stores.

Please make sure you read this book – especially if you’re French or American. Knowing very well your side of the story, you’ll be amazed by what is really behind the scenes in your country or the other one. Having a foot in both, my heart went back and forth as well as my compassion for the two industries and the consumer. But I refuse to be pessimistic and I agree 100% with Tyler when he writes: “Any producer who can sell wines for $500 a bottle, or a company such as LVMH that can sell almost 600,000 cases of wine for an average of $44 a bottle, certainly has something to teach wine marketers in other parts of the world. But William Deutsch, who sold 7 millions cases of Yellow Tail at $6 a bottle in 2005, also has lessons to teach the French. This global exchange of learning helps make winemakers more efficient as well as helping artisanal winemakers make their products more distinctive.”

Enjoy life, good wines and good food!