Sour grapes as wine drinkers face cycling crackdown

"They said I was over the limit and drove me to the police station, strip-searched me and placed me in a cell," said the 49-year-old marketing executive. "It was a nightmare."

That same evening this month, nine other cyclists were arrested in Bordeaux for drunkenness as part of a nationwide crackdown denounced by diners as an insult to the country's gastronomic tradition.

Police claim that the action is in response to a spate of accidents involving road-users on two wheels, but it has increased an already heated debate over official attitudes toward alcohol consumption.

Tolerance

French food lovers, who say it is impossible to savour the country's cuisine without wine, are calling for tolerance when they cycle home afterwards.

Seven years ago, many wine lovers reacted with indignation when the authorities launched a nationwide campaign against drink-driving to cut one of the highest road death rates in Europe. The move also sparked anger in wine-growing regions.

Marie-Christine Tarby-Maire, chairwoman of Vin & Societe, the wine producers' association, says France has fallen into the grip of "a prohibitionist lobby".

In Bordeaux, where the row is dominating news headlines, 15 cyclists have been detained after being found to be above the legal limit. They face fines of €90.

Meanwhile, one of France's finest wine-makers, Chateau Lafite, is to plant a vineyard in China in the hope of achieving the first grand cru in Asia.

The renowned Pauillac estate in Bordeaux will develop 62 acres of vines in the peninsula of Penglai in Shandong province, already referred to as 'China's Bordeaux'. The peninsula has seen production multiply in recent years as foreign wine-makers scramble to secure a foothold in the region.

But Christophe Salin, the company's general director, said only time would tell if it could match the quality of the wine made in Bordeaux.