The northern Italian region of Alto Adige has launched a campaign to convince drivers to drink less but better wine to avoid losing their driving license.
The campaign centers around a slogan taken from a famous quotation attributed to the Romantic German poet and novelist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: "Life is too short to drink bad wine".
"You don't risk losing your license if you just drink one glass of excellent wine," observed Benedikt Gramm, president of the Bolzano Chamber of Commerce at the presentation of the anti-drunk driving campaign.
Aside from encouraging drivers to better and less, the initiative also seeks to promote the region's wines.
Alto Adige has some 5,000 hectares of vineyards and annually produces some 356,000 hectoliters of wine, about 0.7% of the wine made in Italy.
Local wine markers have for some time been focusing on producing quality wine and today 80% of the wine produced here carries the quality DOC label, which stands for controlled designation of origin.
However, much of this wine is sold in bottles of 1.5 liters or larger as opposed to standard 0.7 liter bottles, which local agriculture councillor Hans Berger believes "would be much better for our wines".
"Our wine enhances the image of Alto Adige in Italy and abroad because of its quality," added Werner Frick, the councillor for commerce.
According to a study by the chamber of commerce, 47% of wine produced in Alto Adige is sold within the region, 19% is sold elsewhere in Italy and 17% to Germany, while 6% is sold to Switzerland and 5% to the United States.
