Now, it turns out that even French wine buffs are drinking less — up to 15 percent less.

And the culprit in this latest twist in events, according to the wine industry, is none other than the French government itself, bent on improving France's dismal record on road deaths — twice as many as Britain which has around the same population — by stamping out drink-driving and speeding.

"Wine consumption in restaurants has decreased even more rapidly since late 2002 when the government launched its road safety programme," said Tanguy Chatillon, marketing director for the CIVB, or Bordeaux Wines Interprofessional Council.

He was among a crowd of winegrowers, winemakers, distributors, restaurateurs and others living off Bordeaux wines — which account for around a third of French wine sales — gathered in Paris for a meeting aimed at mapping a strategy to head off the crisis.

Half-bottles, screw-top bottles, BYO (bring-your-own) bottles, selling take-home open "doggy-bag" bottles and selling wine by the glass were some of the revolutionary-for-France ideas kicked about at the forum.

"In the last year to 18 months we have really seen wine consumption drop," Andre Daguin, president of the 80 000-strong UMIH hotel and restaurant owners' union, told AFP.

Chatillon said first estimates showed a 10 percent to 15 percent drop in wine consumption since the government crackdown on road safety. But more significantly, he added, restaurant sales of top quality French wines — the AOC or appelation d'origine controlee wines — had also dropped for the second year running by around three percent.

"It's not that people don't like wine any longer, it's that they want their wine differently," said Alain Vironneau, president of the Union of Bordeaux and Bordeaux Superior.

"We must reconcile drinking wine and acting as good citizens and rehabilitate the idea of drinking, but without excess", he said. "Why not introduce the BYO system, or allow people to take home an opened bottle."

Offering wine per glass, which is popular in many countries but still rare in France, was very much the talk of the day, with some restaurateurs complaining about the high cost of the broken glass, but market analysts arguing that profit margins could be improved in glass-per-glass sales.

Chatillon said allowing restaurant diners to take a second bottle home — opened or not — was one way of removing the fear and the guilt over a traffic accident or police fine.

Eateries could offer take-away wine, second bottles could come with a discount (the standard mark-up for a bottle in a French restaurant is threefold) and corks could be stamped with the winemaker's name and telephone number for possible home orders, he said.

Wine, anyway, is good for you, said Dr Henri Joyeux, a cancer specialist and researcher.

It has easy-to-assimilate calcium to help women facing menopause fight osteoporosis, it is awash with anti-ageing polyphenols, helps fight constipation and can even serve as an antiseptic for urinary infections.

"Wine is a symbol of life," said Joyeux, who recommends a glass per meal and the introduction of quality wines in discotheques instead of spirits.