| The wine industry certainly has welcomed the recent disclosures that a compound in red wine improves the health and endurance of laboratory mice. But the industry can't crow about it, reports New York Times. It has long been handcuffed by state and federal laws that discourage promoting the benefits of wine, with some of those restrictions dating back to the repeal of Prohibition in 1933.
'We would all like to make hay of this, and we'll do what we can, but we are very constrained,' said Michael Mondavi, founder and president of Folio Fine Wine Partners, a producer and importer of wines in Napa, and son of the legendry Robert Mondavi.
As an industry that is closely regulated by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, Mr. Mondavi said, "it is blatantly against the law for any alcoholic beverage producers to make any health claim regardless of the facts or the accuracy."
An ordinary laboratory mouse will typically run one kilometer on a treadmill before collapsing from exhaustion, but mice given resveratrol, a minor component of red wine and other foods, can run twice as far, according to the widely circulated research announced a few days ago.
Mice heavily dosed with resveratrol also have energy-charged muscles and a reduced heart rate, just as trained athletes do, and manage to live longer. The news was the best free publicity the wine industry has received since November 1991, when the benefits of red wine for the heart were hailed on CBS.
The so-called "French paradox" spurred a surge in red wine sales that has never let up, partly overcoming Americans preference for whites, which are considered more approachable for new wine drinkers. Red wine's share grew to nearly 42 percent in 2005 from a mere 17 percent in 1991.
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