A typical cut-price offer on Australian wine in a UK supermarket'Zut alors! French wine sales go down the drain
So why have we stopped buying their wines? French wine sales have dropped 6.5 per cent in the last year, says the new edition of trade magazine Off-Licence News.'
Read the rest here.
See also report on agrisalon on significant falls in the sales of vins de pays and vins de table.
Le conseil spécialisé vins de France Agri Mer a voté jeudi 16 juillet à l’unanimité le nouveau cahier des charges des vins sans indication géographique avec mention de cépage et de millésime, nouvelle catégorie qui entre en vigueur le 1er août de cette année, donc pour la récolte 2009.
Le conseil spécialisé a choisi de donner à cette catégorie le moins de contraintes possibles, pour minimiser les coûts des entreprises et leur donner de ce fait des atouts sur les marchés d’exportation. Il n’y a donc pas de rendement maximal prévu, mais quelques contraintes ont été fixées par rapport aux vins sans IG simples. Les metteurs en marché seront identifiés par France Agri Mer sur simple demande, et le respect du cahier des charges sera vérifié de façon documentaire, au vu des analyses visant à prouver que la présence des cépages et des millésimes allégués est bien réelle dans les bouteilles. Il n’y aura cependant pas de contrôle de la qualité des produits et pas d’examen organoleptique.'
So no limits on the amount you can produce and no tasting control, although given some of the rubbish that gets through the appellation contrôlée agrément tastings ................. All the producers have to prove is that the bottles contain the grape varieties and the vintage claimed on the label. This all seems clear enough – just as well as the new EU wide category comes into force on the 1st August.
But, hang on, this is the French wine industry and things are never as straightforward:
'Si ce cadre permet dès 2009 de produire ces vins, certaines zones d’ombre persistent encore. D’une part, l’Alsace, la Savoie et le Jura ont demandé à ce que les noms de leurs cépages locaux ne puissent être présents sur les étiquettes de vins sans IG. La décision sera prise par le ministère de l’Agriculture au vu des conclusions demandées à Jérôme Despey, président du conseil spécialisé vins de France Agri Mer. D’autre part, le nom de cette nouvelle catégorie de vin n’est pas encore déterminé, l’expression « vin de France » prévue par les réglements européens étant contestée par les producteurs de vins avec IG, qui ne veulent pas que cette formule, utilisée d’autre part pour la communication générale des vins français, ne soit accaparée par une catégorie. Pour l’heure, la question n’étant pas réglée, on peut commencer à faire des vins sans IG avec noms de cépages et de millésimes en utilisant la mention « vin de France ».'
Full article here.
Certain French regions – notably Alsace, Jura and Savoie object to these new wines being able to put the names of their local varieties on the label. Although I can see that the name Riesling, Pinot Blanc or Pinot Gris even Gewurztraminer on a label may well help to sell the wine, I struggle to think that Mondeuse – a red variety from Savoy – or Savagnin – a white from the Jura – is going to help to shift any additional bottles. In any case what producer of high volume sans IG (there doesn't appear to be a convenient abbreviation here, so I'll go for SIG from now on) is going to use either Mondeuse or Savagnin?
The second objection to the use of the name vin de France by IG producers (ie what used to be called vins de pays) – could well prove to be more troublesome. These are the producers who have already had the designation 'vignoble de France or vin de pays de France' annulled in the French courts and sunk the earlier attempt – cèpages de France – to allow multi-regional blending.
What the legal objection to vin de France is I can't imagine, assuming that the SIG wine comes from France, but that probably won't stop a recourse to the law. You see echoes here of the hysteria that surrounded the perfectly sensible proposal to allow the blending of red and white wine to make rosé. It would be good to see the French Ministry of Agriculture throw both of these objections out but given the abject surrender by the Europe Commission to the pressure from rosé producers I fear they will crumble too.
I'm not surprised that French wines have suffered recently in the UK – the sudden drop is the sterling-euro rate certainly hasn't helped. Many price lists are sent out at the beginning of the year and were set when sterling was at its weakest. Several UK importers told me during this year's Salon de Vins de Loire that French producers were about to lose a substantial part of the UK market.
This may, of course, not be entirely bad news as Jérôme Chobet of Muscadet Côtes de Grandlieu has discovered: his sales in the Chinese market are growing fast and they treat Muscadet as a grand vin. How solid a market China turns out to be remains to be seen. Cognac has found Asia-Pacific, especially Japan, to be a notorious fickle market but wine is not the same as spirits...........
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One interesting aspect of the new SIG category is that it appeals to small, producers of individual wines like Mark Angeli in Anjou, Pascal Potaire in Touraine and others, who despair of the AC system refusal to say anything about looking after vineyards in a sustainable manner. A system that is full of rules about what grape varieties you can plant, etc. based on apparent typicity, but which permits the widespread use of an armoury of chemicals, which may or may not be fatal for the long-term life of the soils.
8 comments:
I never know what to make of these articles, as the wines being talked about are the under L10/$15/15 Euros, dominated by jug wines, not serious wines. (Nor wines of the caliber discussed here.)
I can't begin to believe that there's more serious US wine being sold in the UK than French.
Jack. It is certainly true that virtually all of the US wine sold in the UK supermarkets is down the big brands – Gallo, Blossom Hill etc with Fetzer the 'top of the range, exotic'. Supermarkets don't need a professional wine buyer for their US range, a semi-intelligent poodle would do as well and probably be cheaper!
There is easily more serious French wine being sold in the UK then US. However, even here sales have often been hit due mainly I think by the weakness of sterling at the beginning of this year.
Jim,
I hate to disagree with a man of your erudition, but I was pleased by the Commmission's decision to forbid blending red & white and calling it rose. Now if only that could be applied to imports... though we would need a term for blended wines - don't forbid any product (provided it meets reasonable consumer safety standards) but inform the consumer - call it "blended blush" perhaps?
Graham
Graham – not I'm at all sure about erudition... however, I would be interested to know why you thought the EU made the right decision here.
Jim,
I just think roses made by brief masceration of the skins taste better than the blended varieties e,g, I find pink champagnes made by blending less satisfactory (though finding out the method from what is always a very closed-mouth industry can be tough),
Graham
Graham. You may well be right. Just as I think rosé made by pressurage direct or with a short maceration are better than those made by the saignée method. I wouldn't argue that saignée should be banned nor do I see any reason why the blending of red and white grapes to make rosé should be either as long as the label makes it clear that this is how it has been made.
Jim,
I have to leap to the defence of both Savoie and Jura and the part you wrote: "I struggle to think that Mondeuse – a red variety from Savoy – or Savagnin – a white from the Jura – is going to help to shift any additional bottles." These regions, like Alsace, would certainly want to retain the right to use grape varieties on their labels ... in theory, by the way, neither region has had the official permission to use the grape variety names on the label, but they have used them anyway.
In their defence: just as in AOC Alsace, if you don't name these varieties you are left with a generic AOC name such as simply Savoie or Arbois or Cotes du Jura - without the grape variety named, the consumer has no idea what is in the bottle. And since in both regions it is the local market who consumes most of the wines, they do actually recognize these obscure grape names.
Amazingly there are areas outside the AOC limitations that do want to play with these obscure grapes - personally I think, good luck to them, it will help publicize both the grape name and their original homeland, but you know the protective attitude that most AOC regions have - however, you're quite right that a large volume brand called from Savagnin or Mondeuse is a pretty unrealistic prospect!
Wink - thanks. I think there is a misunderstanding here or my posting was poorly expressed. Like you I'm in favour of producers putting grape varieties on labels if they wish to do so, especially in regions like Alsace and Touraine.I have no doubt that having Mondeuse on the label is sensible and useful for Savoie wines.
My comments were directed at these regions' reported opposition to allowing the new sand IG (SIG) wines to use varietal names. I think this opposition is foolish and wrong, although I do adhere to my point that putting Mondeuse on a SIG is unlikely to improve sales. Indeed it is pretty unlikely to happen anyway unless it is a local producer who prefers to be outside the AC rules.
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