FoodBanter.com - View Single Post - LAT:L Who's killing the great wines of France?

In message >
(D. Gerasimatos) wrote:

>
> As has been noted, having the varietal on the bottle might help a lot.
> The French assume that you should just drink the wine and not care
> what the blend is, but that's not how American consumers think. I,
> personally, like to know how much petit verdot makes it into a Bordeaux
> blend I am drinking. I think less educated wine consumers don't realize that
> Burgundy is almost always pinot noir if its red and chardonnay if its not.
> Someone who likes merlot may not know what to buy and if you tell them Bordeaux
> they might still guess wrong when selecting a bottle. Sometimes even wine shop
> owners don't know for sure if a Bordeaux is merlot-based without pulling out a
> reference guide (yes, right bank/left bank but it's not always true!).

The problem for Bordeaux is that the proportion of each varietal in the
bottle will vary from year to year although the vineyard is planted in the
same proportions. They are not making commercially blended wine which th
consumer can rely on to be the same like some places try to do. That is,
after all, part of the fascination and interest. Doe sit matter to the
less well educated‘ consumer what is in the bottle? If it does he can
always look it up and begin his education. why must we always pander to the
lowest common denominator? Doing so has ruined so many areas of life,
whether it be manners or television, do we want that for wine?

.....
>
>
> Also, there is an issue of quality. This is also tied to price, as in
> quality/price ratio. French wine can be very high quality, but there
> is an awful lot of bad wine produced and that is with only the best even
> being imported to the USA. The swill that stays in France can be even
> worse! At the top end French wine can still be a relative bargain, but
> at the middle and lower tier parts of the market it does not stand up
> well to the wine of Spain, California, and Australia. What's worse is
> that the wine in California (at least) seems to be getting better and
> better as new varietals are planted, growing regions are experimented with,
> winemaking and growing techniques are honed, and plant material is
> brought in from the Old World. At the same time, I see very little
> movement in France. Although there has been some, it is happening at
> the levels where good wine is already produced. It needs to happen at
> the village levels among the producers destined to make $10 wine.

I do not know what a $10 dollar wine equates to in the UK or France - the
exchange rate will not have helped in recent years and it may be rather
differnet now from two years ago. I know that there is decent wine available
in France from about 4 euros tax free to a small importer — such things as
good Cru Beaujolais, Cotes du Rhone Villages like Caiaranne and the like.
Good Grand Cru Saint-Emilion can be had for about 8 euros on the same basis
with GCC from about 12 euros, bought carefully.

It simply is not true to say that there has been little improvement in
France in recent years- just go to the area round Nimes to take one example
and see the difference in how many vineyards are tended and how the wines
are made. Indeed it is in the most humble areas that there has been of
necessity the greatest change. We do not need — or want - change in most
of the best of the classic areas. Where there has been change to over
extracted atypical wines to please foreign tastes there has been no true
improvement.

>
> Finally, it helps wineries in California to have diverse lineups of good
> quality wines. For example, I went to Adelaida Cellars in Paso Robles last
> weekend. The best known wine is the Viking Reserve, which is a cabernet.
> Also fairly well known is the HMR pinot noir. However, while there I tried
> (and liked) their white Rhone blend (grenache blanc and rousanne). French
> winemakers often don't have that luxury of cross-selling. Even when a major
> negociant or conglomerate owns many different labels it is difficult to
> cross-sell them. Margaux makes a blanc in addition to the rouge, but its
> not always as easy to find. Imagine if Margaux also lent their name to
> a Rhone red, a pinot noir, and a riesling made with grapes from vineyards
> held by them, tended to their standards, and by their winemaker(s). It's
> how large wineries like Mondavi are able to leverage their good name into
> larger profits (and, often, produce some good wine in its own right).
> I've been to wineries with a lineup of 6-8 wines and debated which
> among those is the best with other tasters. Even though the best wine is
> often 'clearly' the signature wine, there is always someone in the room who
> just doesn't like that syrah and buys a bottle of the lowly zinfandel instead.
> Indeed, each of our palates is unique. Maybe American wine consumers who
> don't like Pavillon Blanc would really love Margaux's pinot gris at
> half the price, but we'll never find out with the current system.
>
>
> Dimitri
>
This comes back to whether you want commercial blends or wine from terroir
with its own characteristics. I would suggest that in fact the names of the
great vineyards conjure up a far more accurate picture of what is in the
bottle for that vintage - once tasted - than any varietal description can
do. What the poster seems to be suggesting is that that name should, be
exploited commercially to describe other wines of very different
characteristics, of greatly varying quality and from wholly unconnected areas.
Some of the big Burgundy houses do this to a limited extent and do nt, in my view,
always maintain quality acorss the whole range as they expand it. I can
think of some big names whose Chablis or St. Bris I would not touch and
whose reputation is far from enhanced by the attempt to cover too big an
area.
Anyway what on earth is the advanatage of everybody being the same?
Why should the French, and those who love their wine, change a system which works?

If anybody wishes to sell their wine as varietally named they can do so
provided they do not also use an AoC name. Some growers choose to sell
wine as Vin de Pays for this reason. That is their right and no doubt, if they
thought it commercially worthwhile, more would do so.

Timothy Hartley