Two different photographs of Catherine Gachet about to sip a glass of the wine she produces in south-western France show her looking more like a Hollywood starlet than a winemaker.
But in the eyes of a French law at the centre of a battle between the country's ailing wine industry and health pressure groups, only one of the images is legal.
A court agreed with the health campaigners that the first, with the glass of wine far too close to Mrs Gachet's lips, was "too sexy" to meet the strict requirements of the so-called Evin Law which rules how alcoholic drinks can be promoted.
For the second shoot, her sultry, "come hither" expression became a wholesome grin and Mrs Gachet held the glass well away from her face. Crucially, the caption identifying her as a wine grower was featured much more prominently.
"The whole thing is totally absurd," said Mrs Gachet, 37, a dentist's wife and mother of two who turns out up to 15,000 bottles of Clos Dady - mostly Sauternes, a sweet wine normally served with foie gras or desserts - each year.
"Anyone who knows me would tell you that the first image was more like me than the one that was allowed, which had to be retouched by computer."
The saga of the "before and after" pictures began when Mrs Gachet was chosen as one of the faces of Bordeaux wine for a national poster and newspaper advertising campaign.
In fact, the Evin Law, dating back to 1991 and named after a former Socialist minister, Claude Evin, only permits her to be the face of Bordeaux because she genuinely works in the industry.
Speaking from her vineyard, Chateau Bastard at Barsac, south-east of Bordeaux, Mrs Gachet said: "The fuss over which photograph was acceptable and which was not was ridiculous, like so much of what goes on in France. We are moving more and more towards legislating for anything but the good life."
She admitted that with 45,000 alcohol-related deaths a year, France had a serious drink problem. "But those who are affected are much more likely to be abusing strong drinks such as whisky or pastis than taking fine wines with good food as part of a perfectly healthy lifestyle.''
The French parliament has now approved a slight relaxation of the rules on advertising text, which previously limited winemakers to drab technical information. A proposed amendment also allows the copy to mention the wine's character and taste.
Mrs Gachet's toned down image may conform. But any advertisement showing a model remains banned.
Despite a £50 million aid package from the government this week, wine growers complain that they are being treated like drug pushers.
At the same time the producers are suffering grievously from changing attitudes to drinking, a crackdown on drink-driving and increasingly sharp competition from New World wines.
Friday, February 4th, 2005
'Sexy' face of Bordeaux wine is banned
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