The Independent - London, February 1st, 2003
THE MANURE really hit the fan when French magazine Lyon Mag described Beaujolais not just as fermented fruit juice, but, worse, as "vin de merde". Prompting this criticism was the execrable 2001 Beaujolais vintage, 15 million bottles-worth of which was distilled or turned into vinegar. But last month a judge decreed that the magazine had gone too far and ordered it to pay nearly pounds 200,000 in damages.
Yet there is a tradition of describing wine in scatological terms. And it's not necessarily derogatory. Characterising sauvignon blanc as cat's pee on a gooseberry bush never fails to amuse ...
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