12°5: grapes and men number 6

Should know. The editorial of 12°5 #6. Just over a year ago, in February 2018, Agnès Buzyn, Minister of Solidarity and Health, made the following statement: "The wine industry leads us to believe that wine is a different alcohol from others () scientifically, wine is an alcohol like any other." Less than a year later, on January 16, 2019, her colleague in the government, Didier Guillaume, Minister of Agriculture and Food, expressed himself in an interview with Jean-Jacques Bourdin on RMC and BFM TV. To the question, "Is wine an alcohol like any other?", the minister replied: "No, I don't believe wine is an alcohol like any other," specifying that he had never seen "a young person leaving a nightclub drunk because they drank Côtes-du-Rhône, Crozes-Hermitage, Bordeaux, or Costières-de-Nîmes."Without being nightclub-goers - we have outgrown that stage - we can confirm, Mr. Minister, that indeed very few young people leave a discotheque drunk from having consumed too much Côtes-du-Rhône. And do you know why? Because at Macumba in Sainte-Vinification-Sur-Lie or at Club Paradise in Vineux-en-Tanin, they don't serve Côtes-du-Rhône but rather champagne, gin, vodka, whiskey, and countless cocktails.Following the minister's remarks, all of France's addiction psychology specialists, addictionology professors, and public health physicians stepped up to denounce scandalous statements. They all cited studies on alcohol consumption in France, the number of fatal accidents on the road due to alcohol, and the famous figure of 49,000 deaths per year attributed to alcohol consumption (a figure from 2009 - Ed.). They also underlined the power of the wine lobbies. It is worth noting that these eminent specialists are also lobbying advocates, as they flooded the media with press releases in the following days. Unfortunately for their cause, the entire press picked up their outraged statements, illustrating them with wine glasses and bottles.This was enough to reignite the debate between two opposing worlds: on one side, the conquering hygienists, fervent defenders of statistics, eager to impose a world where all vices must be fought against; on the other, pleasure enthusiasts and free drinkers, those who enjoy sharing the address of a good winemaker, those who appreciate coming together over a glass of wine not for quantity but for quality, those who want to live without injunctions, or those who remember the quote attributed to Paul Claudel: "Wine creates a triple communion: with the land from which it comes, with oneself when tasting it, with others when talking about it."Philippe Toinard, editor-in-chief of 12°5.