France's wine industry deals with its crisis

It would also permit winemakers to sponsor public events, another form of public relations currently forbidden to producers of alcoholic beverages.

Relying on a number of scientific studies, the authors of the "White Book" maintain that wine is "a food, not a drug," and that regular and moderate consumption has a number of health benefits, particularly for the cardiovascular system and in combatting Alzheimer's disease.

The editor of the White Book is Alain Suguenot, a representative in the National Assembly from the city of Beaune, in the wine region of Burgundy. He charges that French wine is being victimized by "a prohibitionist lobby that demonizes it."

"Wine," he declared, "is a product of civilization and public health that must be defended in France and abroad.