In a 1991 segment of “60 Minutes,” the CBS correspondent Morley Safer asked how it could be that the French enjoyed high-fat foods like pâté, butter and triple crème Brie, yet had lower rates of heart disease than people in the United States.

“The answer to the riddle, the explanation of the paradox, may lie in this inviting glass,” Mr. Safer said, raising a glass of red wine to viewers.

Doctors believed, Mr. Safer said, that wine had “a flushing effect” that prevented blood clot-forming cells from clinging to artery walls. This, according to a French researcher who was featured in the segment, could reduce the risk of a blockage and, therefore, the risk of a heart attack.

At the time, several studies had supported this idea, said Tim Stockwell, an epidemiologist at the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research. And researchers were finding that the Mediterranean diet, which has traditionally encouraged a glass or two of red wine with meals, was a heart-healthy way of eating, he added.

But it wasn’t until the “60 Minutes” segment that the idea of red wine as a virtuous health drink went “viral,” he said.

Within a year after the show aired, red wine sales in the United States jumped 40 percent.

It would take decades for the glow of wine’s health halo to fade.