2009 Pineau d'Aunis, Clos Roche Blanche, AC Touraine
If the proposed reforms to the rules for permitted grape varieties in Appellation Touraine are passed, this delicious rosé made with an indigenous Loire grape variety and in a traditional 'vin gris' style will no longer be allowed. All Touraine rosés will have to be a blend in future if the proposals are agreed.
As Ken Broadhurst (see comment) says some of the most interesting rosés made in the Cher Valley are pure Pinreau d'Aunis. Usually pressed immediately without any maceration or any significant skin contact giving them their delicate pale pink colour – like a vin gris. This 2009 has very attractive floral notes but without the peppery, spicy character that is often typical of Pineau d'Aunis. It made an ideal glass or so to start the evening off sitting outside on a night that was considerably warmer and mlre enticing than yesterday evening.
Worth remembering that Pineau d'Aunis is also called Chenin Noir, a reminder of the variety's Loire origins. Fortunately those producers who believe in inherent quality of their Pineau d'Aunis rosé will continue to make it and sell it as a vin de pays or vin de table. The producer will continue to be the crucial name on the label not the appellation.
Worth remembering that Pineau d'Aunis is also called Chenin Noir, a reminder of the variety's Loire origins. Fortunately those producers who believe in inherent quality of their Pineau d'Aunis rosé will continue to make it and sell it as a vin de pays or vin de table. The producer will continue to be the crucial name on the label not the appellation.
This is truly preposterous !
ReplyDeleteI’m no huge fan of pineau myself, especially when they are off-dry, but have not tasted that one and if you say it is excellent, I have no reason not to take your word for it.
It takes a fool to “revisit” the Touraine rules the way they do it.
On the one hand, they go on “the varietal train” for their whites, and with Mr. Sauvignon to make matters worse; on the other hand, they make blending compulsatory as far as the pink colour is concerned.
Next step, not Greenwich Village, but the harvesting machine, the obligatory chaptalization, the minimal residual sugar (in excess of 4 gr, of course), the obligatory sterile filtration and so on.
You know what: “Vin de France tout court” is the solution, as “super-Tuscans” do it with their “Vini da Tavola”. Pauvre France !
Luc. Thank you yours is a most timely comment. As a distinguished medical expert I'm hoping that you can diagnose what illness or malign substance has sent the poor Touraine producers mad.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately our colleague Jacques Berthomeau believes that the proposals are now so far advanced that they will be passed at the end of the year.
Catherine and Didier will doubtless continue to make their Pineau d'Aunis Rosé it will just have another designation. This will make not a jot of difference to their sales because this rosé like their other wines sell because of their well deserved high reputation.
The one thing that the Touraine producers have not yet proposed is that vineyards wanting the Touraine AC should be dosed 100% with weedkiller.Sadly that practice remains widespread here.
Well, Jim, if ever I was distinguished, it is long bygone, and an expert, I’m afraid nobody ever called me that way. But it is true we farmers have a higher incidence of such neurological conditions as Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, peripheral neuropathies, multiple sclerosis and we are said, on top of that, to suffer more cognitive functions defects and more mental retardation than the general population. Blame it on the pesticides. Thank God, our fertility is on the low side as well !
ReplyDeleteAs far as the psychiatric aspect of it is concerned, it takes a real fool to spend 12 hours a day managing an estate that won’t even allow a normal pittance, that has been the target of Claude Evin and his followers for ages and that no off-springs of sound mind would ever consider taking over. So, clearly you have a case for “manifest destiny” towards insanity.
This appears to be a ridiculous move, IMHO. The Pineau d'Aunis rosés are some of the best here in the Mareuil/Saint-Aignan area.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ken. I entirely agree.
ReplyDeleteJim
ReplyDeleteWhilst I agree that the proposed AC regulations are too pedantic, restrictive and reduce consumer choice, I don't see the problem. AC status does not confer quality - you have to go by producer whatever the label says about AC/Vin de Pays/Vin de Table already.
Anon. I entirely agree with you over the importance of the producer and that appellations are not a guarantee of quality.
ReplyDeleteHowever for appellations to be valid they should reflect the wines that are already being made in the area. Increasingly this is not the case or only partly the case.
Pineau d'Aunis rosé has long been made in Eastern Touraine and been entitled to the Touraine AC. I haven't as yet heard of any good reason why this shouldn't continue.
Here comes a good reason, Jim:
ReplyDeleteAre we certain we look at the issue from the right angle ?
Is it really the producers that want to alter the rules, in order to better sell their wines ?
Isn’t there a hidden agenda, far more entailing ? A modified “conspiracy theory” of a kind?
Of course, many wines, wherever in the world, find it difficult nowadays to leave our cellars to reach the consumer’s. And not just those of small producers, unfamiliar with the arcanes of banking, cash-flow, rotations, turn-over, ratio’s and so on.
Do you really believe that a poor “Grosses Gewachs” from an unknown Winzergenossenschaft stands better chances than an outstanding Spätlese trocken Riesling Brauneberger Juffer Sonnenuhr from, say, our friend Willy Haag (now Oliver), however difficult it is to pronounce that mouthful? I don’t. But you can make millions of liter of Grosses Gewachs, whereas Weingut Fritz Haag will only make a few hundred hectoliters.
Yet, large groups thrive, mass-production companies do make profit and “investors” still choose to put their money in large wine estates, rather than in ventures apparently more profitable. I, for one, do NOT believe passion is part of their motives.
I will always recall Paul Vranken’s opinion, forcefully inprinted in my eardrums at a close distance: “Those small estates, with less than 40 ha in production (i.e. 100 acres, not that small), they should all disappear”. And he meant it.
And look at Gallo’s website. They still proudly quote old Ernest: “We do not want part of the business, we want all of it !”.
“They” – I leave it to you to define who “they” are – want to provoke chaos, turmoil, havoc all over, changing the codes, modifying fashion, creating new needs or desires but, at the same time, imposing strict sets of regulations, a large administrative burden (look at tracability, the huge imposture) and all possible means to penalize the limited quantities, while favoring anything big.
In the not-so-long run, grape growing and, for that matter, wine-making, will be no different from dairy production, from cereal growing, from intensive pig-farming. Why do you think the Dane (and the Dutch on their trail) want all milk to be pasteurized in the EU?
Surely not because of Listeria, poor thing.
Luc. It is quite probable that having a simplified AC Touraine might well suit the large groups like Castel and Grands Chais de France.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the growers are involved in drawing up the proposals and should take responsibility for ensuring that what is proposed is sensible and reflects the local traditions.