Bitter times for French wines
September 10, 2004 - The Seattle Times
LUC-SUR-ORBIEU, France — They say it is France’s worst wine crisis in 35 years. In Bordeaux, they claim it is the worst in 150 years. And while the French may be notorious complainers, the world’s master winemakers have reason to grouse this time.
Wine consumption in France is losing out to a growing taste for beer and a newfound responsibility behind the wheel. The rest of the world’s winemakers are catching up to and surpassing French standards. Government legislation and decades-old self-imposed regional quality standards have put many French winemakers at a competitive disadvantage.
Agriculture minister Hervé Gaymard met recently with winegrowers to discuss options to revive the struggling industry. The resulting proposals are what many French wine snobs would call heretical.
Those changes include: relaxing labeling restrictions, rethinking regional naming standards (known as the “appellation d’origine controlee” or AOC), allowing wood chips for flavoring, and increasing spending on wine marketing abroad by 50 percent.
In the tradition-steeped industry, even the budget increase goes against the grain of some. But the closely watched questions remain: “Is this enough?” “Is it the right direction?” And, most important, “Will it work?”
For export alone, France produced 339 million gallons of wine in 2002, worth $6.9 billion, and the fate of these numbers rests on the answers to the questions above.
Just as globalization has seen U.S. factory jobs move overseas and the price of a phone call from Tokyo to Topeka, Kan., fall to pennies per minute, French winemakers are confronting the realities of a changing world.
One of their biggest problems has been branding on the world market against what the French call “New World” wines from the United States, Chile and Australia, among other places.
Gone is the perception that only a French wine can be a fine wine.
Instead, global tendencies have shifted toward marketing grape varieties such as chardonnay or merlot, which can be grown worldwide. These are known as varietal wines.
Many casual drinkers may not know the difference between a French merlot and one from Australia. Others don’t care.
In addition, people all over the world know of great French regional wines such as those from Bordeaux and Burgundy, whose names remain some of the strongest marketing “brands” in wine. But how many know wines from Corbières or La Clape?
The lesser-known appellations that blanket the country — France is home to a total of 467 — are finding that what little brand recognition they enjoy beyond France’s borders has been eclipsed by worldwide varietal success.
Three winemakers spoke out in the Languedoc-Roussillon, the southern region used as a model for parts of the government plan because it is one of the few regions where varietal production thrives.
Michel de Braquilanges, a seventh-generation wine producer, creates a range of wine at Château Moujan, ranging from the tongue-twisting AOC Coteaux du Languedoc-La Clape to a trendier series of reds and whites called “Up Side Down.”
When asked if this really is the worst crisis in 35 years, he doesn’t hesitate: “Without a doubt. There’s just not as much market for us as there was before.”
Indeed, 2003 was the year the “New World” wines collectively dethroned France in terms of bottles exported.
On top of that, the French themselves consume less than half as much wine as they did 35 years ago.
“On the world market, it’s hard for a little producer like me because our prices can only go so low,” Braquilanges says, “so we end up sitting on our wine.”
At Domaine Roque-Sestière in the small town of Luc-sur-Orbieu, Lagarde is lucky that the old and new laws have little effect on his bottom line. He makes affordable, award-winning Corbières wines that are quickly snatched up in France.
With no plans to produce varietal wines, he may provide as close to an objective view on what’s happening as is possible on French soil.
“People used to buy French wine because it was a given that it was the best, but now if you’re Mr. X, how do you get your name out there? You can’t just call it ‘Mr. X wine’ because it doesn’t work anymore, but if you call it ‘Mr. X Chardonnay,’ it’s instantly known around the world.”
As the world’s best-known wine critic, Robert Parker, put it at a conference in June, “For the average consumer, the AOC (or the regional naming standard) doesn’t mean a thing.”
Meanwhile, a complicated system of legal snares keeps most French winegrowers from slapping a varietal label on their wine, or even marking which grapes make up their appellation.
Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company