This won't count as news if you are based in France but there is currently talk there of increasing the tax on wine within France in an effort to raise a bit more dosh to pay for that country's generous social security system inter alia. As you may know, there is currently virtually no duty on wine within France (one of several important reasons why there has been such an influx of settlers from Britain where on every bottle of wine we have to pay well over a pound excise duty, plus 17.5 per cent VAT). Even though within France they are talking of a pretty tiny tax, about five eurocents per bottle, this is not playing well with the French who, even though drinking less and less wine, have been constantly battered by anti-alcohol health warnings on ads even for the lightest of wines.
This contrasts strongly with a new Spanish policy which is to exempt wine from any official negative huffing and puffing – indeed rather encourages wine consumption on the basis that wine drinking can be beneficial for your health and, presumably, good for the national economy.
Another much more sinister story in the European press concerns a range of wines on sale in Italy, each adorned with a large picture of an important historical figure, including Mussolini, and Hitler. Italo-German relations had barely recovered from Berlusconi's and one of his minister's respective and extremely insulting remarks about the German nation's history and holidaymaking habits before this new strain.
