Wine Law

18 slogan was justified by the fact that the Abbey had been “reborn” many times after several destructions. It was held that the communication on the origin of the product does not have to be objective and can be hyperbolic since the wording of the law only mentions that what needs to be objective is the communication related to the colours and the taste and olfactive quality of the wine 59 . This decision gave hope to alcohol advertisers by seemingly giving space to creativity on some authorised themes, such as the origin, denomination and composition of the product. However, the decision was then overruled by the High Court that held that the advertisement must be objective and informative for all authorised references to the product, and not only for references pertaining to the colour, and olfactive or taste characteristics of the product 60 . Consequently, that argument takes us back to the orthodoxy of law interpretation: only objective and informative message, with no hyperbolic messages. Arguably, the images of Heineken’s “open your world” campaign would also have been censored with this reasoning. It is worth mentioning another decision of the Court of Appeal of Paris of 2017 that did not censor the advertisement 61 . In that case, although the colours were extremely vivid, it was considered that this champagne ad by Vranken Pommery was not illegal as it depicted the Crayère de Pommery, whcih is the special underground place where the Champagne is traditionally elaborated. It was held that the image was linked to the elaboration means of the product and the terroir and that it is not forbidden to have it depicted in an artistic way. 59 See, indeed, article L. 3323-4 of the Public Health Code. 60 Cass. civ. 1 re , 20 May 2020, no. 19-12.278. 61 CA Paris, 21 December 2017, no. 16/00155.