Behind the bluster

IT WAS more than a symbolic defeat: on May 16th, Robert Mondavi, a big Californian wine maker, announced that it had abandoned plans to build a winery in Aniane, a small village in France's Languedoc region. The recently elected mayor of Aniane had denounced Mondavi's plan, which had been approved under the previous mayor, as a capitalist plot designed to benefit shareholders rather than locals and the environment. In March, demonstrators had smashed toll-booths and fought with police in protest. Mondavi pulled out, citing personal and political interests that it did not understand.