Beware the Name Game - Caveat Emptor!

     One of my favorite anecdotes about wine is that the French wine industry advanced to its lofty world class status in large part due to the British thirst for wine. The British are notorious for their wine consumption and French winemakers across the English Channel enthusiastically sought to quench their thirst for wine as early as the twelfth century.  To what extent this trade with Britain actually helped shape the French wine industry today, I am not certain. Nevertheless, the logical connection between the British propensity for wine and French winemakers willingness to satisfy this proclivity has always appealed to me. As a result of my fondness for this narrative, I have repeated the story many times as one explanation for how and why the French developed their famed wine industry and their export mentality.

     One of the key components to building their reputation as a fine wine producing nation are the strict laws of AOC (Appellation Origin Control) which govern the viticulture and viniculture of each wine producing region. These laws also underpin what is referred to as France’s export mentality. This is where France’s early exporting of wine to England comes into play. In the early stages of their wine industry French winemakers determined that in order to protect the reputation of French wine from some unscrupulous winemakers they would embrace a simple philosophy; when anyone buys a bottle of French wine anywhere in the world they are assured of a unswerving level of quality and a taste sensation that is indicative of its wine producing region. Hence a series of rules and regulations were put in place over many years insuring the quality of French wine. Such laws prevented some French winemakers from cutting corners in favor of profits over quality which would have ultimately tarnished the reputation of all French wine.

     Knowing my keen interest in the connection between French wine and the British, my friend and wine-muse Alex Nacar recently emailed me links to articles regarding French wine and British Sommeliers published in The Telegraph, a London newspaper.  From these articles I hoped to glimpse into present-day British wine service, uncover some new wines to try and learn from Sommeliers across the pond which French wines are currently in vogue in England today.  The articles were entertaining with such snappy phrases as “wine waiter” for Sommelier and “off-piste” for going astray and other unique phrases that only the British can get away with.  There was one point though that just went against the grain; the term declassified Chateauneuf du Pape, describing a Côte du Rhone. My immediate reaction was, no, not so!  The mere phrase grated on my sensibilities as if someone was running their fingernails across a blackboard. Not true! I muttered to no one.  At that point I donned my deer stalker cap, ala Sherlock Holmes and declared to the same invisible audience.  “The game is afoot Watson!” My curiosity was piqued.  Have I been missing out on an exceptional wine value from one of my favorite French wine producing regions, the Rhone Valley, which is also the geographical home to both Cote du Rhone and Chateauneuf du Pape?  Or, was this just another erroneous marketing term invented to help sell wine to an unsuspecting public? The answer quickly revealed itself.

      While searching the internet for a definition of declassified Chateauneuf du Pape I discovered other websites using the very same term describing various Côte du Rhones. Here is an excerpt from one of the websites: 

“This is a true declassified Chateauneuf-du-Pape.  For definition’s sake, appellation contrôlée rules for wine in France maintain that only a certain volume of wine can be produced each year with a specific label.  Any excess production must be sold under a broader appellation (region/area) or as “declassified wine”, therefore at a lower price.  The quiet understanding of “declassified” is that we are drinking wine that has been made with the same care and expertise from the same area, as in this case the big shot Chateauneuf-du-Pape.  Bottom line ... with juice such as this you’re getting a lot of bang for your buck!”

     This definition implies that a vineyard in Chateauneuf du Pape can grow as many grapes as it cares to but is limited to the amount of wine it can bottle under the label bearing the AOC of Chateauneuf du Pape. This is simply not accurate! According to the Chateauneuf du Pape website hosted by the Fédération des syndicats des producteurs de Châteauneuf-du-Pape (see link below) a vineyard is limited to the number of vines it can plant per hectare (2.47acres) not how much wine it can bottle.  This is perfectly logical and in keeping with the rational for establishing AOC standards. In this particular instance, limiting the amount of vines planted per hectare creates enough space for the vine’s roots to spread out and prosper without competing for nature’s nutrients and water from neighboring vines; thereby growing plump and juicy grapes. There is no such limit on how much wine can be bottled under the label of Chateauneuf du Pape.  The restriction is how many vines can be planted per hectare.  Contrary to what the sellers of “declassified Chateauneuf du Pape” would have us believe, a wine producer in the appellation of Chateauneuf du Pape can make and sell as much wine as they care to depending on how many hectares of land they can plant.

     There may very well be good reasons why a vineyard in Chateauneuf du Paper would declassify their wine as a Côte du Rhone but it is not because there is a limit to how many bottles of Chateauneuf du Pape they can sell bearing that AOC designation.  One answer may be that a particular vintage does not live up to the high standards of grapes for wine from Chateauneuf du Pape or since wine from Chateauneuf du Pape can consist of many different grapes (up to thirteen) they may have an excess of one or more different grapes varieties from a good vintage that can still be used to make wine under the broader AOC of Côte du Rhone by using a different blend of grapes.  Either reason makes perfect sense. Thus, by declassifying the wine as Côte du Rhone, the vineyard owner is not tarnishing the reputation of the Chateauneuf du Pape appellation with grapes from an inferior vintage or, is now able to use the different leftover grapes from a good vintage to make a Côte du Rhone.  For the consumer, these Côte du Rhones may be a perfectly good wine, even a very good wine, just not worthy of bearing the label or the price tag of Chateauneuf du Pape.

      There are many variables in deciding on whether to purchase a very good Côte du Rhone or a more expensive bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape. An erroneous definition of declassified Chateauneuf du Pape only serves to muddy the waters for any wine enthusiast.

Caveat emptor!

http://en.chateauneuf.com/the-culture-of-the-vine

Except from the Chateauneuf du Pape Website: The vineyard is obliged to have a very low density of plantation: 3,000 to 3,500 vines per hectare. In the last century this was the distance required for the horses to cross the vines. Nowadays it is a guarantee of quality because each vine has enough space to flourish in the best conditions. 

Road Less Traveled Part III

The Dawning of California-French Wines

     A glass of wine is an enticing collection of flavors waiting to unfold on our palates. With each sip, our taste buds are awash with the fruit flavors, acids and tannins that titillate our senses. Every mouthful reveals a wine’s individual style, structure and character that either reaffirms our expectations of a certain type of wine or creates a new standard by which we will judge other similar wines in the future. Then there are wines that are so unique, so individualistic that when we have them it is as if we have never sipped this type of wine before. This is what I experienced on a road less traveled.

     While tasting over two hundred different wines, from over thirty wineries and vineyards along the winding backs roads of Paso Robles California I came upon the unexpected, an uncommon reward for my efforts—a new style of wine. These wines evoked such new taste sensations that the usual comparisons with other such wines were inadequate. As a way of setting these sumptuous Paso Robles wines apart from what others “label” as “Rhone Clones” or “Bordeaux Blends” I created a new term, California-French to exemplify their unique individuality. Referring to these wines as “clones” of the Rhone Valley or merely “blends” from the grapes used in Bordeaux is inaccurate. They are wines with exceptional richness and texture, in a class by themselves.

     Wine producing countries, states and regions all have, what I call “personalities” or certain taste sensations that are associated with and expected from their wines. Good examples of wines from the Rhone Valley in France, such as Cote du Rhone, are light to moderate in body with mildly spicy fruit flavors, low tannins and moderate acids. Typical wines from Bordeaux on the other hand, will have more body, noticeable tannins, moderate acids and fruit flavors that are reminiscent of currants as well as non-fruit flavors such as smoke, tobacco or chocolate. Referring to a particular wine as a Rhone Clone or Bordeaux Blend, with similar taste characteristics as those from these two French wine producing regions, is a popular and until now an accurate way of describing such wines. That was before I tasted wines from three vineyards in Paso Robles California. Each vineyard produced wines of such unmatched style and character that they demanded their own unique descriptive category, hence the term—California-French.

Next month we will “taste” the wines and meet the vintners and vineyard owners of these extraordinary wines.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. By Robert Frost