The State of France 1

I was lost in France And the vines were overflowing... I was lost in France in love (Bonnie Tyler)

How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese? asked General Charles de Gaulle. He might have been even more perplexed if he had considered wine: spread across France are 467 dif-ferent AOPs (appellation protges, formerly appellation contrles or AOCs) for wine. In Bordeaux alone, there were 57 AOCs at one point. Altogether there are more than 500 different official classifications in France, identifying the geographical origins of every wine.

The AOPs are both the glory and the despair of French winemaking. The glory because they set a standard and preserve tradition: the AOP system main-tains a certain quality, for example, by limiting how much wine can be produced from each vineyard; and by restricting the choice of grape varieties, it prevents producers from abandoning regional traditions to jump on the same bandwagon of fashion. But the other side of this coin is that over-regulation can stifle innovation. This makes producers less flexible in responding to changing conditions such as global warming or foreign competition.

Burgundy & Beaujolais 43

Vintage Ratings *** universally agreed to be a classic vintage ** a very good vintage without rising to the absolute heights * a good vintage with interesting wines no stars a vintage with few wines of interest

2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 Champagne * ** * * ** * ** *** Alsace * * ** ** ** * *** ** * * Loire * ** * * *** *** Burgundy * ** ** *** * *** *** * Beaujolais * ** *** * *** * * Bordeaux ** *** * *** * * Northern Rhone * * *** ** ** ** *** * Southern Rhone * * *** ** *** * *** * ** Languedoc * ** ** ** ** * ** * *

2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990

Champagne * * ** * *** ** * *** Alsace ** * ** * ** * * *** Loire * * ** ** *** Burgundy * ** * ** * *** Bordeaux *** * ** ** *** Northern Rhone ** * ** * *** Southern Rhone ** ** ** ** ***

Burgundy & Beaujolais 45

They leave kisses in the wine, I found one inside of mine When the rhythm's really fine, rare and sweet as vintage wine (Grateful Dead)

Im not sure anyones actually described Burgundy in terms of kisses in the wine, but if theres any wine for which this is appropriate, its red Burgundy. At its peak, the Pinot Noir of Burgundy has a sublime, sensuous quality that no other wine in the world can match. Of course, while Burgundy remains un-challenged as the pinnacle for Pinot Noir, production of white wine, almost exclusively from Chardonnay, is more important in the region as a whole. As an area devoted principally to vinifying Pinot Noir and Chardonnay as individ-ual varieties, Burgundy is the place to ask which is more important, terroir or winemaking, and just how far the intrinsic qualities of place and grape variety can be influenced in vineyard and cellar.

You must also transplant the soil and the sun, the Prince de Cond was told, when he was disappointed with the results of transplanting vines from Volnay to his estate at Chantilly.1 The soil and the sun are the key parts of ter-roir: the concept that every piece of land expresses its characteristics in the wine that is produced from the grapes grown on it. Nowhere is this concept better fulfilled than in Burgundy. Two adjacent vineyards, separated by no more than a track, if even that, may have different characters and reputations. Making wine from only a single grape variety, there is no way to hide differ-ences in soil or climate, or the effects of vintage variation.

74 Wines of France

tion in Pommard, it is there straight away, because the tannins come at the be-ginning.

South of Volnay, the tip of the Cte de Beaune is white wine territory. Char-acterizing the differences between Meursault, Chassagne Montrachet, and Puligny Montrachet is complicated by the fact that each appellation has a wide variety of producer styles. Conventional wisdom identifies Meursault as soft, nutty, and buttery, while Chassagne Montrachet has a bit more of a citrus edge, and Puligny Montrachet is taut, precise, and mineral. Changes over the past decade or so, especially in Meursault, show that these styles are due only in part to the intrinsic character of each appellation.

Meursault is the largest of the three appellations. Although it has no grand crus, its top premier crus, Les Perrires, Les Genevrires, and Les Charmes, are excellent, with Les Perrires sometimes approaching grand cru quality. Some red wine is produced in Meursault, but the best is a premier cru that is actually labeled as Volnay Santenots. The whites used to be rich rather than mineral, although those of the top producer, Coche-Dury, tend towards a savory miner-ality. Others have now followed Coche Dury in a more mineral direction, most notably Arnaud Ente and Antoine Jobard. Comtes Lafon makes some of the

Many of the top vineyards in Volnay run right into the town, close to the church.

90 Wines of France

time did nothing about it. So Mcon became the only part of Burgundy not to have premier crus and we have been paying for that ever since. We studied the history carefully, and we are asking for about 25 different premier crus, which may amount to around 20% of the appellation. The introduction of a hierar-chy will also have the effect of encouraging growers to bottle their own wines, which is perhaps a major (unstated) intention.

Terroirs have been much better defined as part of the preparation for pre-mier crus. Frdric-Marc maintains that, The reputation of Pouilly-Fuiss for opulent rich wines is quite wrong, we have wonderful variety of terroirs, we have all those levels mixed up from different geological periods, we have iden-tified fifty different types of soil and geology. Theres a million years difference between the soils. We can find mineral Pouilly-Fuiss and we can find rich Pouilly-Fuiss from clay all over the appellation.

A tasting at Chteau de Beauregard illustrates the range of terroir differences in Pouilly-Fuiss. Around ten cuves from different climats range from precise

Pouilly-Fuiss consists of four villages; Pouilly Loch and Pouilly Vinzelles are separate appellations.

Bordeaux 115

Jeremiah was a bullfrog Was a good friend of mine Never understood a single word he said, but he always had some mighty fine wine (Three Dog Night)

Mighty fine wine somehow seems appropriate for a description of Bordeaux above all else. At its best, Bordeaux is probably the longest-lived wine in the world, the top wines have unmistakable character and backbone, and they have been established as the best of their type for centuries. Bordeaux reflects the history of France itself. Wine production started after the Romans con-quered Gaul, but fell into disarray during the dark ages after the collapse of the Roman Empire. It was the English who put Bordeaux on the map as a major wine producer after they took over Aquitaine in 1152. There were ups and downs after Aquitaine was restored to France in 1452. Wines of quality began to be produced during the eighteenth century when the top producers were distinguished, detailed classifications came into effect in the nineteenth cen-tury, and Bordeaux reigned supreme during the twentieth century until challenged by competition from the New World. Bordeaux has a reputation for being staid and bound by tradition, but when tradition clashes with the need to preserve market share, commerce wins every time. Today Bordeaux is caught by a dichotomy between the unparalleled success of the top wines and the dif-ficulties, not to say failure, of generic wines.

Bordeaux 141

The Graves classification (really it should now be called the Pessac-Lognan classification) covers a range more or less equivalent to the five levels of Grand Cru Class in the Mdoc. At the very top come Haut Brion and Mis-sion Haut Brion: no dispute about that! Chteau Haut Brion has made wine since the sixteenth century, and the monks at neighboring Mission Haut Brion were making wine in the seventeenth century. One of the very first to establish a great reputation abroad, Chteau Haut Brion was the most fashionable wine in London in the late seventeenth century. I drank a sort of French wine, called Ho Bryan, that hath a good and most particular taste that I never met with, Samuel Pepys famously noted in his diary in 1663. It was the only wine outside the Mdoc to be included in the 1855 classification; today its closest rival is Mission Haut Brion, under the same ownership, which makes for some fascinating comparative tastings.

Next comes a group that epitomizes the extremes of style. Chteau Pape Clment (originating when the Archbishop of Bordeaux became Pope Clment V and gave his private vineyard to the archdiocese), led the way into a more international style when Bernard Magrez started to revive it in 1985. More re-cently Smith Haut Lafitte has moved in the same direction, and I sometimes

Haut Brion and Mission Haut Brion are separated by the main road and surrounded by suburban housing.

150 Wines of France

Figeac, unusual in St. Emilion for the high content of Cabernet Sauvignon, which gives it more structure and less opulence. But when the first ever promo-tions to group A were made in 2012, they were of Anglus and Pavie. Chteau Pavie has been controversial since a famous disagreement between critics as to whether a change in style, after Grard Pearse bought the chteau in 1998, was to a ridiculous wine more reminiscent of a late-harvest Zinfandel (ac-cording to Jancis Robinson MW) or an off the chart effort...trying to recreate the glories of ancient Bordeaux vintages (according to Robert Parker). Irre-spective of the merits of this wine (the 2003 vintage) the promotion is nothing if not a clear validation of the trend to power. The inclusion in the classification of the former garage wines, Valandraud and La Mondotte, as Premier Grand Cru Class B, further reinforces the trend.

Completely at the opposite extreme from the gentrified town of St. Emilion, the village of Pomerol is scarcely noticeable: the church is just about the only notable feature. All around are vineyards, mostly with domains housed in small practical buildings. Ptrus was famous for its shabby appearance until some renovations a few years back. Coming from St. Emilion, first you cross the ex-

Vineyards run imperceptibly from St. Emilion into Pomerol as seen by the view at sunset from Cheval Blanc, with the church at Pomerol visible at the right.

Bordeaux 177

I saw her today at a reception a glass of wine in her hand (Rolling Stones)

Take regions where wine production is marginal and full ripeness occurs only occasionally. Most struggle to survive. But the genius of Champagne is to turn weakness into strength by requiring the wine to be acidic and bland as a neu-tral base for introducing bubbles, with a touch of sweetness to counteract the acidity. The reason why almost all potentially competitive regions have failed to produce anything matching Champagne is that they can actually make rea-sonable wine: they are simply not marginal enough. You might think that as sparkling wines are far more manipulated than still wines, Champagne would be easier to imitate, but in fact very few alternatives are really competitive in terms of character and quality. Champagne has progressively pushed all other aperitifs into relative insignificance. That glass of wine in her hand at the recep-tion was very likely Champagne.

The same method is used to produce all quality sparkling wine: performing a second fermentation in the bottle to trap the carbon dioxide that is released in situ. This is called Mthode Champenoise, but the term means far more than merely a method for making sparkling wine. The fact that it is banned from use by anyone but the Champagne producers tells you a great deal about their commercial ruthlessness in enforcing their market position. The only term that is allowed for wine made elsewhere by the same methods as in Champagne is Mthode Traditionelle.

206 Wines of France

up the smaller ones at a fairly steady pace. Well over half of all production comes from five major groups44 and another quarter from a small number of large houses. These are the Grand Marques. (Grand Marque was defined by a group of major houses who formed an association,45 later disbanded, but now is more loosely used to indicate major houses with significant international rep-resentation.46) Grand Marque carries no implication of quality.47 As large producers, the Grand Marques rely on a mix of grapes from their own vine-yards and purchases from growers (in most cases a majority of the latter); they are the leading houses in the group that is described as Ngociant-Manipulants, indicated by NM on the label.

Every bottle of Champagne carries a mark on the label that indicates the character of the producer (but it is very discrete). At the other extreme from NM is the Rcoltant-Manipulant, indicated by RM on the label. This describes a grower who vinifies wine only from estate grapes. These are the so-called Bou-tique or Grower Champagnes. They are relatively small, with holdings typically ranging up to about 30 ha. Indeed, any size increase is limited by the fact that its all but impossible to buy vineyards, and of course purchasing grapes would mean a change in character. In fact, the only way to obtain vineyards is to buy

Before disgorgement, Champagne is stored flat. Thin layers of wood are usually included every few rows, which gave rise to the name sur latte.

Alsace 213

Strawberries, cherries, and an angel's kiss in spring My summer wine is really made from all these things (Nancy Sinatra)

Alsace must surely have the most picturesque villages and vineyards in France. Driving through the vineyards of the Route des Vins from Strasbourg to Colmar, you pass through an endless series of wonderfully preserved medieval villages. This is quite surprising considering that the region has changed hands several times in wars between France and Germany. Germanic influence has impacted wine production, from the types of grape varieties to the mix of dry and sweet styles. It is no accident that Alsace is the only region in France where the focus is as much on grape varieties as appellations. Its history has also had a signifi-cant effect on aspirations to quality (or lack thereof).

You are always conscious of the Vosges mountains. Vineyards extend east-ward from the lower slopes of the mountains. Most of the best vineyards are on the middle slopes between 200 and 350 m, which are a degree or so warmer than the land above or below.1 From the relatively narrow band of vineyards, the land opens out to the east on to a plain extending to the Rhine (which however is too far away to have any direct influence on the climate). The Vos-ges mountains are the dominant climatic influence. Bad weather stops on the Vosges, they claim locally. Because rainfall is absorbed by the Vosges, Alsace had the driest vineyards in all France.2

The Loire 229

A bottle of white, a bottle of red Perhaps a bottle of ros instead (Billy Joel)

Loire producers are thought of as traditionally making white wine, but now there is some red wine, says Franois Robin of the producers organization, Inter-Loire, but this is an understatement as production today splits more equally between red, white, and ros. The emphasis is on cool climate varie-ties, as the Loire is at the northern limit for viticulture; in fact, it is only due to the ameliorating influence of the river that wine can be made at all in the re-gion.

The longest river in France, the Loire rises in the Massif Central, and runs more or less north to Sancerre, where it turns west. No longer navigable, it me-anders through the wine regions for about 400 km (250 miles) before it empties out into the Atlantic. The Loire is divided into four general regions for wine production: the Nantais near the coast, Anjou centered on Angers, Touraine centered on Tours, and the Centre around Sancerre. All styles of wine are found in the Loire as a whole, but going from west to east, the Nantais is domi-nated by dry white, the largest production in Anjou is ros, the bulk of Touraine is red, and the Centre (the general name of the eastern vineyards) fo-cuses on dry whites. The sweet whites of Anjou and Touraine have a great reputation, although production volume is small.

270 Wines of France

style. The top vineyards are located in Chavignol and Bu. In Chavignol, the best is Les Monts Damns, followed by La Grande Cte and Le Cul de Beau-jeu. In Bu, the best is Le Chne MarchandWhenever a winemaker has Chne Marchand, it is always the most complex wine in his cellar, says Cl-ment Pinardfollowed by Grande (and Petite) Chemarin. Bu's soils have more compact chalk, and less marl and clay, than Chavignol, so tend to finesse and precision, sometimes almost perfumed, whereas Chavignol tends to more powerful expression. Theres general consensus on which vineyards are supe-rior, but a tacit agreement that it would be too divisive to try to achieve any formal classification of Crus. The difficulties and arguments about classifica-tion in St. Emilion are a warning about trying to make a classification, says Gilles Crochet of Domaine Lucien Crochet.

Chavignol is famous for its goat cheese, the Crottin de Chavignol, which is supposed to be a perfect match for the wine. However, the locals chuckle when you ask, where are the goats? On the tops of the hills, they say at first. When you point out that the hills are now covered with vineyards right up to the summits, they admit there are no longer any goats in Chavignol: the vine-

The hilltop town of Sancerre dominates the local vineyards.

The Loire 277

I got red blood, and I got blood red wine

Which I bring you, when the snow is heavy on the ground

(Rolling Stones)

The powerful red wines of the Rhne are definitely wines to enjoy in the win-ter. Viticulture most likely started in the warm climate of the Mediterranean coast when grapevines were brought from Greece to Massilia (now Marseilles) around 600 B.C.E. The importance of wine production increased after the Ro-mans took over Gaul in the first century B.C.E. By the first century C.E., wine production had expanded north as far as Vienne, the capital of mid-Gaul, un-der the influence of the Allobroges tribe, who were admired by the Romans for their skill in producing a wine called vinum picatum.1 Under the Romans, wine production became increasingly sophisticated, with the best known wines coming from Marseilles, Vienne, and Narbonne.

The river Rhne flows south from Lake Geneva across Savoie, before turn-ing west to Lyon, from where it flows more or less directly south for two hundred miles before debouching into the Mediterranean near Marseilles. Wine is produced all along the Rhne, from below Lyon to the south of Avi-gnon. Production divides naturally into two regions, the Northern Rhne and Southern Rhne, which are about as distant and distinct from one another as they are from Beaujolais to their north. There is a gap of about 30 miles be-

The Rhne 291

the red in order to obtain the white.18

Things more or less collapsed after the first world war, with a large part of pro-duction moving from small growers to a cooperative, and only four negociants handling the wines. Most of the wine was sold to negociants until the revival of the 1970s. By then, the appellation was almost fully planted.19 Today about three quarters of production is red.

Because Hermitage is a single hill, its geography restricts the size of the appellation to about 135 ha. It consists of a granitic outcrop, an anomaly that is virtually the only granite on the east side of the river, created when the river changed its course long ago to flow to the west instead of to the east side of the hill. The hill rises directly up steeply above the town of Tain lHermitage (originally called Tain until it was re-named to reflect the glory of the wine), with houses extending right up to its base. Retaining walls are used to hold in the topsoil. Southern exposure is an important feature, protecting the vine-yards from the north wind and giving good sunlight. Like the Pinot Noir in Burgundy, were at the northern extreme of the Syrahs ripening here at Hermitage, according to Jean-Louis Chave, one of the top producers.20

There is some variation in terroir around the hill. Granite at the western end changes to stones resulting from glacial deposits at the eastern side. Running round the hill are a series of climats, each with its own characteristics. The top climats are the granite-driven sites at the west: Les Bessards, Le Mal, and lHermite. If Hermitage was part of Burgundy, many or all of the lieu-dits would be bottled as separate wines, but the tradition here has been more to-wards blending. Jean-Louis Chave, who is widely acknowledged as the master of blending, explains why Hermitage is different from Burgundy: What was local in 1936 when the AOP was created? For sure, what was local in Bur-gundy was to have Crus. In 1936 they thought about having Crus here, but what was local here was to blend wine from different sites to make the Hermit-age. Its not like in Burgundy where there are small differences reflected

Looking north along the Rhne, the hill of Hermitage stands out for its southern exposure. The northern part of Crozes-Hermitage is also hilly. St. Joseph is on the west side of the river.

Languedoc & Provence 325

Red, red wine Goes to my head... Red, red wine Stay close to me (UB40)

If the Languedoc were an independent country, it would be in fifth place in the world for wine production (more or less equal with Argentina and after the United States). It accounts for one third of all wine production in France. To give it its full name, Languedoc-Roussillon is a vast area, stretching around the Mediterranean from near the Rhne to the Pyrenees at the west. (Roussillon is the southernmost part adjacent to Spain). To say that the history of wine pro-duction is chequered would be kind. Together with Provence, immediately to its east, the region used to be known as the Midi, famous for providing the ma-jor bulk of Europes wine lake, a vast quantity of characterless wine from high-yielding varieties. But things are different today. Overall production has de-creased sharply, production of Vin de Table has been reduced to a small proportion, and although production remains predominantly IGP, there are some AOPs establishing good reputations. Most of the wine is red.

Rich is the word that comes most immediately to mind to describe the style. The warm climate makes this a fertile area for growing grapes, but until re-cently, quantity ruled over quality. At the start of the nineteenth century, the focus was on producing wine for distillation; the Languedoc made about 40% of all spirits in France.1 After the railway connected Montpellier to Paris in

326 Wines of France

1845, producers switched to making cheap table wine that could be sent to the industrial cities in the north.2 Phylloxera wiped out the vineyards here as else-wherethere were riots in Montpellier in 1907 to protest cheap imports of wine from Algeriabut by the second decade of the twentieth century, recov-ery was under way. Production still focused on price; wine was produced as cheaply as possible, often blended with foreign imports, and sold in bulk.3 Al-most all was Vin de Table, and as the demand for plonk declined, this surplus became the largest single contributor to Europes wine lake. At its peak around 1970, Languedoc-Roussillon had 450,000 hectares of vineyards.

Economic difficulties, combined with incentives to abandon production, led to a substantial decline in vineyard areas. Over the past forty years, production has declined by about half. In fact, subsidies for pulling up vineyards became a significant part of the income of the Languedoc. Today there are about 220,000 hectares of vineyards. The number of growers has declined, and in spite of a move by the more enterprising to bottle their own wine, the cooperatives are more important here than anywhere else in France. Of the 700 cooperatives in

Languedoc-Roussillon stretches from Nmes to the Spanish border.

The IGP dOc covers the whole area, and includes four departmental IGPs.

IGP Ctes Catalanes corresponds to Roussillon; IGP Aude and IGP Pays dHrault are the heart of Languedoc; and IGP Gard extends from the Languedoc into the Rhne.

Some of the better known zonal IGPs are named in parentheses.

The Challenge to France 367

Non, je ne regrette rien (Edith Piaf)

Today, the Barbarians are at our gates: Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Chile, Argentina, South Africa, stated a report by the French Ministry of Agriculture in 2001. Until recent years, wine was with us. We were the cen-ter, the unavoidable reference point.1 A more personal point of view came from Aim Guibert of Mas de Daumas Gassac, when he was leading the fight to stop Mondavi of Napa Valley from investing in the Languedoc: Every bottle of American and Australian wine that lands in Europe is a bomb targeted at the heart of our rich European culture.2

The competition is so poignant because France sowed the seeds of competi-tion by exporting its best cpages. The grape varieties that have swept the New World all come from France. Cabernet Sauvignon is the most widely planted black variety in the New World. Forgotten varieties of Bordeaux dominate South America: Malbec in Argentina and Carmenre in Chile. Syrah became Shiraz in Australia. Chardonnay is the most successful white variety in the world, with a range extending from quasi-Burgundian to completely different styles. New Zealand has made its reputation with Sauvignon Blanc.

Just before phylloxera devastated winegrowing in Europe at the end of the nineteenth century, France was the clear market leader with almost 40% of world production. (Most of the rest came from Italy and Spain.) France re-mained the most important producer as Europe recovered from phylloxera.

Alsace 378

Champagne 388

Loire 404

Burgundy 437

Beaujolais 491

Jura-Savoie 496

Bordeaux 500

Southwest France 555

Northern Rhne 564

Southern Rhne 579

Languedoc 599

Provence 616

Symbols

Town

AOP (if different from town)

IGP

Red Ros White Sweet Reference wines

Second wine

Grower-producer

Negociant (or purchases grapes)

Cooperative

Lutte raisonne (sustainable viticulture)

Organic

Biodynamic

Tastings/visits possible

By appointment only

No visits

Sales at producer

No direct sales ha = estate vineyards; bottles = annual production

Vineyard Visits 628

/ColorImageDict > /JPEG2000ColorACSImageDict > /JPEG2000ColorImageDict > /AntiAliasGrayImages false /CropGrayImages true /GrayImageMinResolution 300 /GrayImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleGrayImages true /GrayImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /GrayImageResolution 300 /GrayImageDepth -1 /GrayImageMinDownsampleDepth 2 /GrayImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50000 /EncodeGrayImages true /GrayImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterGrayImages true /GrayImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /GrayACSImageDict > /GrayImageDict > /JPEG2000GrayACSImageDict > /JPEG2000GrayImageDict > /AntiAliasMonoImages false /CropMonoImages true /MonoImageMinResolution 1200 /MonoImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleMonoImages true /MonoImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /MonoImageResolution 1200 /MonoImageDepth -1 /MonoImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50000 /EncodeMonoImages true /MonoImageFilter /CCITTFaxEncode /MonoImageDict > /AllowPSXObjects false /CheckCompliance [ /None ] /PDFX1aCheck false /PDFX3Check false /PDFXCompliantPDFOnly false /PDFXNoTrimBoxError true /PDFXTrimBoxToMediaBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXSetBleedBoxToMediaBox true /PDFXBleedBoxToTrimBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXOutputIntentProfile () /PDFXOutputConditionIdentifier () /PDFXOutputCondition () /PDFXRegistryName () /PDFXTrapped /False

/CreateJDFFile false /Description > /Namespace [ (Adobe) (Common) (1.0) ] /OtherNamespaces [ > /FormElements false /GenerateStructure false /IncludeBookmarks false /IncludeHyperlinks false /IncludeInteractive false /IncludeLayers false /IncludeProfiles false /MultimediaHandling /UseObjectSettings /Namespace [ (Adobe) (CreativeSuite) (2.0) ] /PDFXOutputIntentProfileSelector /DocumentCMYK /PreserveEditing true /UntaggedCMYKHandling /LeaveUntagged /UntaggedRGBHandling /UseDocumentProfile /UseDocumentBleed false >> ]>> setdistillerparams> setpagedevice