From the drinks business: A Bordeaux producer is breaking from tradition and simplifying French wine with the launch of a range inspired by the New World, whose wines he says are continuing to grab market share from old world producers.
Hmm. It appears that the āinspirationā is in marketing and labels. I couldnāt tell whether heās making new-worldish wines, with their higher alcohol and heavier textures.
I really hoped for an article about celebrating the grape and the process but it was more a stance on marketing. My winseller carries many unconventional small maker French wines that buck tradition but the focus of the story is generally on celebrating a grape, a location or a process. I have a general policy of distrust for wines with frenetic animals on the label and a cute story on the back. They are hitting a very accessible pricepoint though if its tasy it should sell. I do get that traditional Bordeaux can be confusing but so can sorting through all the modern cute labels.
How so?
because if you are selling a wine to a novice buyer as most are, including myself the large selection and scant information can challenging . For Bordeaux and the labels are often a name and a picture of a Chateau - no fun little story nothing āmemorableā or cute to distinguish bottle from bottle - there is a required knowledge - if you donāt have it yourself like me you can rely on helpful staff to guide you to the right bottle at the right price. If I go to my preferred large winesellerās website search for bordeaux blends, France, 2014, there are 130 options from 12 appellations ranging from a $2500 Chateau Margeaux 94-97 Points to a $15 bottle of Chateau Cantermerle 93-94 points and a whole sea of Bordeax to choose from in between.
My point was however that all of the āmodernā cute labels with stories and adorable graphics do not actually help you know what is in the bottle any better they just make you think you know something. The consumer has the illusion of feeling informed. I usually prefer to rely on advice form knowledgeable staff and my taste buds. This is among the reasons why I do not prefer to buy wine at the PA state stores.
The whole article was about marketing wine differently not actually making it differently basically slapping a cutesy label on a cheap bottle of wine to help it stand out at the store and be memorable
Hmmm . . . I find far more information on that bottle of Bordeaux with a picture of the chĆ¢teau than I do on the typical New World label, but . . . .
Well YOU do, but the average American wine shopper has only a cursory knowledge of wine, largely based on grape variety. Few French wines provide that specificity on the label, so my thought is that they have very little by which to orient themselves to a French bottle.
Iāve been around a bit, but mostly with new world wine, so I could probably make a couple of decent guesses if I came upon a bottle of Dry Creek wine with no variety shown. I AM, though, interested in whether the difference is that (with French wine) people donāt need the comfort of variety specificity but trust in the terroir and familiarity with producers. Has the apparent lessening of some restrictions on what grapes can be used in some regions changed anything re French wine? Has that made a difference, or is it not impacting the ābetterā, more traditional, wine areas?
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Yes, of course, but it is only because they (āthe average American wine shopperā) are familiar with varietal labeling. To the average Western European, however, varietal labeling is an anomaly ā not the norm.
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But wouldnāt/shouldnāt you be able to do that with not just a bottle of wine from Dry Creek Vineyard, but from any producer?
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Here are three ālabelsā from the ā2018ā vintage:
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Dry Creek Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma County, California, USA; 13.8% alcohol by volume.
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Dry Creek Vineyard āThe Mariner,ā Dry Creek Valley AVA, California, USA; 13.8% alcohol by volume.
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ChĆ¢teau Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Pauillac, Bordeaux, France, 13.8% alcohol by volume.
From that information, I know more about Wine #3 than Wine #1 or #2.
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It isnāt just French people (and French wine). The same holds for Portuguese, Spanish, Italian . . .
Not specifically addressed to you, as you are in the trade, but you know that variety specificity is useless on its own. If I tell you that I had a āRobert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignonā last night, what did I drink? (At last count, I think they make at least six different ones. In contrast, there is only one ChĆ¢teau Grand-Puy-Lacoste.)
Itās not really allowed within the top appellations.
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Disengage yourself for a moment from varietal labeling. Again, it has to do with what one grows up with, is familiar with. Had you grown up in Western Europe, youād be more comfortable with Appellation dāOrigine ContrĆ“lĆ©e, DenominaciĆ³n de Origen, DenominaĆ§Ć£o de Origem Controlada, Denominazione di Origine Controllata and Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita ā etc., etc., etc. And it wouldnāt matter what grape(s) went into that Bordeaux or Sancerre, that Rioja or Priorat, that Douro or Alentejo, or that Chianti or Bardolino . . .
But had you grown up in, say, New Zealand or Australia, Chile or Argentina, or the US or Canada, youād be more familiar with varietal labeling. And youād be more focused on the what (of a grape variety) than where (those grapes were grown) or how (the wine was made).
Six of one, half a dozen of the other . . . .
I donāt see anywhere that we disagree on this. Itās always seemed to me that Iād need either a much better memory or have had to grow up much more around European wine for non-variety labels to come easy to me. When Iām selling a US wine with a house name and no listed variety info I have a similar memory need, though certainly itās even more necessary in that situation since thereās less to go by.
I donāt either. (Part of my response is written for others who may be reading this, not necessarily directly to you ā if that makes any sense.)
And I donāt deny at all my āadvantageā ā although I grew up in California, Iāve been tasting and learning about wine since 1963 (when I was 10), and began working in a WINE store (versus a liquor store). The vast majority of wines that were considered āgreatā in the mid-1960s, and even through most of the 1970sĀ¹, were European wines. As a result, I grew up knowing and understanding both European and Californian/American labels.
I guess Iām ambidextrous that way . . . ;^)
Ā¹ Cabernet Sauvignon was, of course, the first California varietal wine to ādareā to claim greatness ā dating back to the 1940s, and even before Prohibition. Chardonnay began to catch on in the mid-1970s, but other varieties didnāt arrive until the 1980s (or even later).
