Baumards seek third annulation

Florent Baumard: "Perhaps I should have ordered a bullet-proof vest!"

Florent Baumard (Baumard) confirmed at the Salon des Vins de Loire this morning that they have lodged a legal challenge with the Conseil d'Etat to the two new appellations: Quarts de Chaume Grand Cru and Chaume Premier Cru du Coteaux du Layon.

Florent Baumard: "I don't like doing this but we had no choice. There are many things wrong with the text – it is full of contradictions and errors. I'm not against the notion of Quarts de Chaume grand cru but the producers wanted to have a grand cru at any price. Many want to sell their domaines and think that if it's is a grand cru it will be easier to sell.

"We have been excluded through the passing of arbitary rules. Two hectares of our vines – les vignes larges – have been declassified from Quarts de Chaume and these are the vines that produce my best fruit!"

Pierre Aguilas: incandescent at the Baumard's legal challenge

Afterwards I spoke to Pierre Aguilas, who is both a producer in the Quarts de Chaume and president de la Confédération nationale des vins AOC, president de la Confédération des vignerons du Val de Loire, president du comité régional de l'INAO and president d'honneur de la Fédération viticole de l'Anjou. He was barely able to contain his fury at what the Baumards have done by seeking to annul once again a new appellation involving Chaume and as well as trying to overturn the new Quarts de Chaume Grand Cru.

"When I heard about this new legal challenge on Friday night – I was astonished. The new rules are very strict, such as reducing the yields and verifying the amount of grapes by what is on the vine rather than calculating by the hectare. I and others in Anjou have worked for the past twenty years to improve the quality of the wines of Anjou. Appellation rules have been successively tightened up.

"Quarts de Chaume is a very great appellation and many have worked very hard to bring it up to a standard that merits a grand cru. Now all this work over the past 20 years here and in the rest of Anjou is threatened to be thrown away by the egotistical actions of one individual!

"True there a few like Laffourcade who want to sell but there are now many new producers in the Quarts de Chaume, who are certainly not intending to sell! I borrowed money from friends and associates just so that I have have some vines in the Quarts de Chaume. I strive to make the best wine I can from what nature gives me with very low yields – 14-15 hl/ha – so as to give maximum value to the appellation. Each year I work with just nature – no machines (Jim: Baumard is a proponent of cryo-selection/cryoextraction, which is banned under the new Q de C regulations) and no additions of sugar.

"Jean Baumard was past president of the Fédération Viticole de l'Anjou. It is ridiculous and shameful that he is making this legal challenge for entirely selfish reasons – thinking only of himself and not for the good of the viticulture of Anjou. In the past I defended Jean Baumard – it is now clear I was wrong to do so. This whole situation is surreal!" 

Pierre Aguilas@2012 Salon des Vins de Loire

Stéphane Branchereau of Domaine des Forges said: "We tried to be conciliatory – for example in the phasing out of cryoextraction extending this to 2020 – but it hasn’t worked."

Although the Quarts de Chaume is only a small appellation of some 50 hectares and Coteaux du Layon Chaume slightly bigger with 70 hectares, there will be more riding on the decision by the Conseil d'Etat. Quarts de Chaume is intended to be the first Loire grand cru but not necessarily the last. Other special sites or terroirs could become grand crus if they adopted similarly strict regulations that the the Quarts de Chaume have accepted. If the Conseil d'Etat upholds Baumard's legal challenge, the possibility of Loire grands crus will be thrown into question. It may also mean that the use of cryo-selection/cryo-extraction will again be permitted for Anjou sweet wines undermining much the progress that has been achieved in the years since the mid to late 1980s.

A suivre. 

See also here on decanter.com

Quarts de Chaume: Grand Cru – legal challenge

Part of the Quarts de Chaume 

A legal challenge to the recently agreed Quarts de Chaume Grand Cru and Chaume, Premier Cru du Coteaux du Layon was filed with the Conseil d'Etat in late January. At present it is not known who has filed this challenge nor on what grounds. The Conseil d'Etat has the power to annul these two décrets, which were agreed unanimously by the INAO in September 2011. See here.

Domaine Baumard successfully challenged two previous décrets that raised the status of Chaume. See here. 

Quarts de Chaume now Grand Cru with Chaume Premier Cru Layon

Bunch in the Quarts de Chaume today 

The INAO today accepted unanimously that the Quarts de Chaume should be a Grand Cru and Chaume a Premier Cru Coteaux du Layon. The décret has yet to be signed by the relevant French government minister. It can take some time before the Minister finds the appropriate pen but this is normally a formality. Quarts de Chaume is the first Loire appellation to be made Grand Cru.  

On the two previous occasions when a distinction for Chaume has been agreed; there has been a successful legal challenge from Domaine des Baumards. It is not yet known whether this will also attract a legal challenge. 

It looks like 2011 will be a magnificent year in Chaume and Quarts de Chaume. Some of the grapes are now extraordinarily rich - a mix of passerilage and noble rot - reports of 26% potential already. Such are the levels of potential alcohol that some vignerons are instructing their pickers not to be too selective in their picking and to include golden grapes that might normally be left to mature and be picked at the next tri, so as to reduce the wine`s potential sweetness and to give greater freshness.