The French alcohol industry exported around $17.2bn worth of wine and spirits last year. The EU provided €160mn towards the purchase of excess wine and the French government provided the remaining €40mn. The wine industry is one of France’s biggest exports and is also one of significant national pride. For them to spend an amount that’s relatively quite small to help strengthen their prized industry by buying and repurposing excess wine is really not the unbelievable act a headline would have you believe.