by Alain Dominique Perrin
All the studies conducted in the four corners of the globe lead to one and the same truth: 80% of wine drinkers buy a grape variety first, and not a “name of origin”. This is not an Anglo-Saxon trend. We are dealing with a worldwide culture. Such being the case, until 2005 the French stubbornly prohibited any reference to the grape variety on their labels, which was not only idiotic but bad business… This basic mistake proceeds from the idea, which, by the way, is not always incorrect, that all grape varieties do not do well on all types of soil, and that conversely they show a preference for some of them.
Nevertheless, it is hard to see why, since 1935, it was forbidden to mention the grape variety used on the label! Even if this meant clearly favoring “Bordeaux” and “Champagne”. This regulatory archaism has now been done away with by the European Union’s directives, thus allowing us make our products better known in the export arena. And while France today remains our leading market, the United States are now coming up close, thanks to this change in regulations. This is good for our economic balance, and good for the image of our wines.
This does not mean that names of origin are a bad thing. I will always prefer a camembert made the right way to a pale pasteurized imitation. But in the case of our wines, the problem was not lowering quality standards. Quite the contrary, it was providing better information about our products to foreign customers. And it has taken the fundamentalist devotees of the name of origin too long to accept this.








Recent Comments