wine and health

France’s health minister Agnès “buzzkill” Buzyn   has again provoked the ire of the wine industry with a new proposal to require a large red warning label on all bottles, admonishing pregnant women to avoid all alcohol and reminding buyers of the legal age limit (18) for drinking. A coalition of 64 of France’s top winemakers are pushing back, declaring in a letter to Le Figaro that this is nothing less than an affront to the soul of their country. As translated by British newspaper The Telegraph, the letter implores their countrymen to recognize the importance of the “thousands of tourists [who] come to discover this France, bosom of the art de vivre that is the envy of the world and where wine plays a leading role.” They mourn the prospect of bottles defaced “with labels covered in lugubrious and deathly signs.” Warning labels are already required in France as in many other countries, but the size is not specified; Buzyn want a 2 cm (about an inch) wide red banner. I cringe at ...