French winemakers angered by Government move to cut alcohol intake

Wine drinking is in decline in France, a trend exacerbated by government initiatives to curb binge-drinking

The Boyer family business has survived a revolution, four wars with Germany, two with England, eight changes of regime and more economic crises than anyone can remember since it began making wine by the Mediterranean in southern France.

So it is perhaps surprising that a handful of bureaucrats should be able to disturb Jacques Boyer’s sang-froid at he sits overlooking his centuries-old estate on the dry, yellowish land of the Côtes de Thongue outside Béziers. “It’s incredible and dramatic,” he says, shaking his head at the campaign to cut alcohol consumption in France, in the name of public health. “These incessant, regular attacks are undermining our national heritage.”