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Winemakers Frustrated By Ad Restrictions

While the wine industry has welcomed recent studies that a compound in red wine improves the health and endurance of laboratory mice, they aren't allowed to advertise them due to state and federal laws that discourage promoting the benefits of wine--some dating back to the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. "We'd all like to make hay of this, and we'll do what we can, but we are very constrained," says Michael Mondavi, founder and president of Folio Fine Wine Partners, a producer and importer. Under regulations from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, Mr. Mondavi says, "it is blatantly against the law for any alcoholic beverage producers to make any health claim regardless of the facts or the accuracy." So until and unless that rule is changed, he adds, "we have to sit on our hands and wait for others to pick up the story."

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