Franc Wines Research Articles

Dietary proanthocyanidins: Occurrence, dietary intake, bioavailability, and protection against cardiovascular disease

The French have one of the lowest incidences of coronary heart disease in the Western world despite a diet with a relatively high fat content. This phenomenon that has puzzled researchers worldwide for more than a decade is known as the 'French paradox' and has been linked to the high consumption of red wine in France. Red wine is rich in the complex polyphenols, the proanthocyanidins, and these compounds have recently attracted attention as potential cardiac-protective compounds. The present review summarizes the literature on proanthocyanidins with focus on their chemical structure, the occurrence, the daily intake from foods, the bioavailability and metabolism, and the evidence for a protective effect against cardiovascular diseases.

Cooperation and Conflicts: Institutional Innovation in France's Wine Markets, 1870–1911

Very different commodity chains had been established over the centuries in France to produce and sell wines as diverse as champagne, fine old clarets, or ordinary table wines. The major shortages caused by the vine disease phylloxera after 1875 forced merchants to search for new sources of supply, often in foreign countries or through the production of artificial wines. When domestic production revived, however, the recovery was not accompanied by a noticeable reduction in these new supplies, with the result that prices, as well as growers' profitability, fell sharply after the turn of the twentieth century, strengthening the merchants' power in the various commodity chains. To overcome this situation, growers in three very different wine-producing areas, namely the Midi, Bordeaux, and Champagne, used their political influence to achieve government intervention in order to control fraud and establish regional appellations or producer cooperatives, which helped them win back some of their market power from merchants.

SELLINT WINE TO THE FRENCH: OFFICIAL ATTEMPTS TO INCREASES FRENCH WINE CONSUMPTION, 1931–1936

ABSTRACT In the early 1930s, France faced a steadily worsening surplus of wine as a series of large harvests combined with the effects of a worldwide and domestic depression. During this period, successive governments were unwilling to limit France's wine production. The French State, believing that increased wine consumption would liquidate the surplus, therefore undertook the strategy of persuading French consumers that it was their patriotic duty to drink more wine. This article examines attempts to encourage wine consumption in France. It particularly analyses the efforts of the Comité de propagande du vin, set up by the government in 1931. It looks at the methods employed by the committee to encourage wine consumption including radio broadcasts, cinema films, poster campaigns, touring wine fairs, and sporting events. The article also discusses those groups such as teachers and doctors who supported the campaign and extended wine propaganda into France's schools and hospitals. The article suggests that the episode is a demonstration of the important role played by wine production and consumption in French national identity.

Alcohol, Sex, and Gender in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe

A. LYNN MARTIN. Alcohol, Sex, and Gender in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave, 2001. x+200 pp. $65.00.In Alcohol, Sex, and Gender in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, A. Lynn Martin juxtaposes two fruitful subjects of inquiry: sexual ideology and history of food and drink. Of particular interest to Martin is complicated relationship between actual drinking practices of medieval and early modern men and women, contemporaneous beliefs about effects of alcohol, sexual mores of time period, and gender paradigms. Martin notes that though drinking patterns vary in time and place, the association between consumption of alcohol and sexual activity has remained constant in Western culture (9)-even to present day. Though Martin briefly traces beginnings of this association to ancient Roman texts and biblical stories, his main purpose is to that in Western cultural tradition, especially in England, France, and Italy between 1300 and 1700, people learned that consumption of alcoholic beverages resulted in behavior that was erotic and violent (15). Martin is especially concerned about demonstrating way in which this behavior is learned-as opposed to being a result of physiological reactions to alcohol. In support of this claim, he presents for analysis works of literature, church sermons, cultural studies of alcohol consumption, production, and availability, as well as modern medical experiments dealing with physiological and psychological effects of alcohol.Martin observes that beer, and wine were essential elements of practically every social occasion, including baptisms, church functions, and political celebrations. In addition, citizens used alcohol for medicinal purposes and money-raising ventures. For example, when alcohol was sold during a help ale, proceeds of sale were donated to a needy family or parish member. Studies based on annual per capita consumption of wine in France and Italy or daily consumption of ale or beer in England demonstrate importance of alcohol in people's lives. In addition, these same figures illustrate likelihood that women as well as men drank significant amounts of alcohol during late medieval and early modern period.Though in practice both men and women drank regularly, not all members of society condoned consumption of alcohol. Intriguingly, number of writers who moralized on evils of drink is equally divided between those who addressed drinking by women, those who addressed drinking by men, and those whose comments were gender neutral (48). Stances on female drinking, though, were decidedly misogynistic. When men drank, effects of alcohol caused otherwise honorable men to sin; when women drank, alcohol acted upon already perverse and weak nature of women as set forth in sexual ideology of day. This view is apparent in contemporaneous church sermons, poetry, and ballads-an example of which occurs in a seventeenth-century ballad that states whenever a woman had been drinking 'all keys will fit her trunk' (48).Many writers, though, expressed opposing views and celebrated link between sex and drink. Martin observes that writers waxed poetic over alcohol's use as an aphrodisiac as well as its ability to make people fall in love. A mostly positive treatment of alcohol consumption occurs in writings pertaining to weddings. The Christian symbolism of wine, symbolic connection between alcohol and sexuality, fertility, regeneration, and life, role of alcohol in conception and pregnancy, praise and condemnation of drink for its erotic effects, and occasional inability to perform resulting from overindulgence all figure prominently in both writings about weddings and ceremonies themselves (51).Both positive and negative writings emphasize connection between alcohol and sex-a connection embodied in medieval and early modern alehouses. …

The Quest for Identities: Consumption of Wine in France

In the study of the Anthropology of Food, Drinking has occupied a marginal and specific position. It is only recently that anthropologists have started to claim that they have a distinctive perspective on Drinking and if ‘according to Dwight Heath few anthropologists before the 1970s would set out deliberately to study patterns of thought and action concerning drink, they had nevertheless written a great deal on alcohol’. The publication in the 1980s of ‘Constructive Drinking’ by Mary Douglas...

Les déterminants de la consommation individuelle de vin en France

The determinants of individual consumption of wine in France. The objective of this article is to study the factors influencing indiduals' consumption of wine in France using cross section data gathered by ONIVINS and INRA for 2000. We first estimate the probatilities of drinking wine and its frequency (number of times per week) using binary and ordered probit models, respectively. The ordered probit model has however some weaknesses. It does not allow to have estimated parameters to take different values to explain the desision to consume wine and the frequencies. If we only want to explain the frequencies of drinking wine, the estimation of a simple ordered probit based on only those who have decided to drink wine (i.e. those with a positive frequency) produces a selection bias. To overcome this problem, we specify both the probability to drink wine and the probatility to have a given frequency of drinking wine in a common model framework. Such a model framework is called a bivariate ordered probit model because it incorporates two qualitative dependent variables and one of them is ordered. This model enables us to disentangle between the factors that indluence the decision to drink wine from those affecting the frequencies without any selection bias. It also has the advantage of being able to test whether the decision to drink wine and the number of times are correlated or not. Estimating this model with French date, we are able to show that the two decisions — drinking wine or not and then how many times per week — are statistically independent. In short, we conclude that the decision process to drink wine is sequential. Variables like age, gender, area of residence, numbers of individuals in the household, number of good meals taken at home, influence both the decision to drink wine and the frequencies. The social status of the household, individuals' family status, individuals' beliefs and individuals' attitudes towards wine (measured by the parents' habits to drink wine and their attitudes regarding their children's alcohol consumption) have an impact only on the decision to drink wine. The individuals' frequencies to consume wine outside home (number of times attending bars etc...), family's habits (presence of alcoholic beverages in the household during their childhood) influence only the frequency per week to drink wine

Le terroir, le cépage et la marque : stratégies de valorisation des vins dans un contexte de mondialisation

«Terroir», brands and vine variety : globalisation and wine's valorisation strategies. Today, the wine industry is experiencing deep changes : the reputation of "terroirs" tends to evolve, the social hierarchies settled between "appellations" are shaken by more modest ones, and in particular by those of the "new world" countries. The objective of this paper is to analyse the effects of these transformations on the French wine industry, and more especially on the principles of classifications of first-rate wines, taking into account the fact that history, differences of reputation and institutional structures have an orderly role on the economic behaviour of (wine) producers, especially with regard to international markets. We study two cases - Chinon's "appellation" and Languedoc-Roussillon - that have a different position in the French wine industry. Both of them did not incorporate at the same time and in the same way the AOC label. These two instances clearly show the importance of social perception of wine quality in establishing their values and in explaining all the changes that occured about their classifications. Although Chinon's "appellation" adopted the traditional approach, Languedoc-Roussillon' s strategy consisted of turning the rules of the game in its favour by introducing a new category of wine in France, thus anticipating the changes of the international wine market. This article does not pretend to provide definite answers on the respective merits of classifications but clarifies the economic and symbolic strategies of agents concerned by the cultural transformations of world wine markets.

This month in J Lab Clin Med: Issue highlights for October 2000

This month in J Lab Clin Med: Issue highlights for October 2000

Science, Vine, and Wine in Modern France. Harry W. Paul

<i>Science, Vine, and Wine in Modern France</i>. Harry W. Paul

Vintages and Tradition: An Ethnohistory of Southwest French Wine Cooperatives

Vintages and Tradtion. An Ethnohistory of Southwest French Ware Cooperatives. ROBERT C. ULi. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996. This is a study of social and conditions that led to marginal status of southwest French wine cooperatives with respect to prestigious estate-bottled wines of Bordeaux. Described by author alternately as ethnohistory and historical ethnography, Ulin's work is based on eleven years of archival and field research in Medoc and Dordogne regions. Describing his central theoretical and problematic, Ulin writes: The establishment of a winegrowing hierarchy in southwest of France arises from of processes that are inextricably political-economic, symbolic, and in nature. Consequently, any narrative that seeks to con.act and represent ethnographically and historically past and present of wine cooperatives must bridge very theoretical gulf that currently divides political economy from theory in anthropology and history (p. 26). The early chapters outline formative periods in southwest French winegrowing history, including twelfth-century English occupation, development of grand cru (first growth) vineyards, and crises which led small winegrowers to create regional cooperatives. Despite producing nearly half of France's wine, and often in close proximity to prestigious estates, cooperatives do not benefit from cultural capital of First Growth wines. Against assumption that elite wine makers benefit from an especially favorable climate and soil Ulin argues that this is an invented tradition which sustains their prestige and distinguishes their wine and lives from others. The chateau label has been particularly important in calling forth associations with aristocracy of past, even though, Ulin notes, houses of traditional aristocracy in region were not chateaus. Because this label requires that wine be estate-bottled and associated with a particular place (with grapes from a single vineyard), collectively vinified wines of cooperatives are at a disadvantage and assigned marginal status. In outlining convergence of processes that are inextricably political-economic, symbolic, and in nature, Ulin has focussed primarily on state policies and extra-local markets for wine with respect to first of these processes, on invented tradition of First Growth wines with respect to second, and on a hierarchy of social class relationships in French society with respect to third. Vintages and traditions succeeds best with first aim, that is, in describing local articulation of state policies and international market changes. In Chapters 3 and 4 Ulin draws out particularities of Bordeaux's winegrowing history with respect to development of capitalism and an international market for wine. Drawing on work of Eric Wolf and Sidney Mintz, Ulin argues against the general impression, often supported by a world-systems approach, that capitalism is a homogenous, totalizing system producing similar effects in all places and all times (p. 65). Chapters 6 and 7 provide a thorough overview of internal structure of southwest cooperatives, legislation governing their wine, and limits and possibilities available through marketing organizations. Ulin's analysis reveals continuities and innovations with respect to a long history of wine production, both at levels of individual winegrowers and of state legislation and broader economic conditions that shape their labor. …

Science, vine and wine in modern France

Science, vine and wine in modern France

The Red and the White: The History of Wine in France and Italy in the Nineteenth Century. Leo A. Loubère

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsThe Red and the White: The History of Wine in France and Italy in the Nineteenth Century. Leo A. Loubère Eugen WeberEugen Weber Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Modern History Volume 51, Number 3Sep., 1979 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/241968 Views: 1Total views on this site Copyright 1979 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

&lt;sc&gt;leo a. loubère&lt;/sc&gt;. &lt;italic&gt;The Red and the White: A History of Wine in France and Italy in the Nineteenth Century&lt;/italic&gt;. Drawings by &lt;sc&gt;mark blanton&lt;/sc&gt; and &lt;sc&gt;philip loubère&lt;/sc&gt;. Albany: State University of New York Press. 1978. Pp. xx, 401. $25.00

Journal Article leo a. loubère. The Red and the White: A History of Wine in France and Italy in the Nineteenth Century. Drawings by mark blanton and philip loubère. Albany: State University of New York Press. 1978. Pp. xx, 401. $25.00 Get access Loubère Leo A.. The Red and the White: A History of Wine in France and Italy in the Nineteenth Century. Drawings by Blanton Mark and Loubère Philip. Albany: State University of New York Press. 1978. Pp. xx, 401. $25.00. Patricia A. Lewis Patricia A. Lewis University of Houston Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 84, Issue 3, June 1979, Pages 737–738, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/84.3.737-a Published: 01 June 1979

The Red and the White: A History of Wine in France and Italy in the Nineteenth Century

The Red and the White: A History of Wine in France and Italy in the Nineteenth Century

Some effects of DRUGS on NUTRITION

In the broadest sense, the word “drug” has come to mean the same as “medicine”, that is, a substance that is used in medical treatment because it has some action on the functioning of the body or on disease. Food and drugs can interact in several ways and in some instances there is a very hazy borderline between what is a food and what is a drug. Take alcohol for example. When taken in large quantities, it has a marked effect on the higher nerve centres, so alcohol is clearly a drug. Yet being a source of energy, alcohol is also a food. One gram of alcohol supplies 29 kJ and the average adult in the U.K. takes about four per cent of his total energy intake as alcohol. (In France and other wine producing countries, alcohol supplies about 14 per cent of the total adult energy intake.) A variety of effects on nutrition can be caused by alcohol. In social drinkers the commonest is a contribution to obesity. Some wines — not only “tonic wines” — are rich in iron. This is, at first sight, a good thing because iron deficiency is common all over the world. But those who take generous amounts of wine are not necessarily those who are short of iron and a state of iron overload can sometimes occur. Severe alcoholics, whose life becomes so disorganised that they eat very poorly, can have a variety of nutritional deficiencies. The most serious is thiamin deficiency which can occur in those alcoholics who drink heavily and eat very little food over a few weeks. The result is either brain disturbance, Wernicke‐Korsakoff disease, or heart failure. These respond dramatically to large doses of thiamin, provided the condition is recognised quickly. Occasional cases have been reported from British hospitals in recent years.

The plastering of wine in France: Report of the United States Commercial Agent, at Limoges. Board of Trade Journal, 1888, 439

The plastering of wine in France: Report of the United States Commercial Agent, at Limoges. Board of Trade Journal, 1888, 439