The Wine Smarties Help Decipher the World of French Wines

I recently started my Level 2 WSET program, and remembering how daunting the world of wine can be, I threw French Wine Laws at them on the first day of class. Mean teacher? No. Not understanding how to read and interpret European wine labels is a big part to understanding European wines as a whole, and it all starts in France. A lot of wines made in Europe are not labeled as their ‘New World’ counterparts do, by Grape Varietal, but instead label their wines by regions (could be a large region like Burgundy, or a district within that region like Cote de Nuits, or a commune/village like Gevrey-Chambertin, or even a single vineyard Premier or Grand Cru like Chambertin.) Confused? Don’t worry, you are not alone. As a teacher, it is my job to point out patterns and help simply the world of wine, but as the student, it is ultimately their responsibility to understand it, and know it cold. I force my students to memorize this stuff. Granted, it’s not fun to memorize names of places you don’t really know how to pronounce, but it is very important, as it is the key to unlocking the ‘old world’ of wine.

If I might digress for just a moment…..this brings up an interesting observation I have of living in California. I am a New England transplant here, and where I grew up, people bought Italian and French wines knowing about Burgundy, Bordeaux, the Loire Valley, Chianti, Brunello, Barolo, etc. I was a bit surprised when I started teaching wine out here in California that people generally lacked a rudimentary understanding of the important growing regions of Europe. Perhaps it’s because generally people in California drink Californian wines, so they don’t have the need to look outside of the state for a drink? Or maybe it is because we are 3000 miles further away from Europe than the East coast is, so there is less of an influence of Europeans here in California? Whatever the reason may be, the bottom line is that they have to memorize names of places they have never heard of before and I think this is the most challenging part. So, in an effort to help decipher the mysterious French wine laws (thereby paving the way to understanding European wines as a whole), I am devoting this blog to the French AOC.

AOC means Appellations d’ origine and was created in 1935 to protect the names of the best wines of France from fraud and quality variations within a region. It is still today supervised by the INAO (institut Nationale de Appellations d’Origine). An appellation of origin is a collective property right belonging to individual wine-growers. It is designed to protect and control geographically based regions. According to Andrew Jefford, author of The New France, he argues in favor of the French AOC system, as it met with a lot of criticism around the world, especially in New World growing regions. Andrew argues that “French wine law is splendidly resistant, furthermore, to the depredations of capitalism and the abusive perversions of the free market. It is the major reason why French wine has achieved the level of refinement, beauty, and complexity that are it’s hallmarks….It is the single name (of a region) which small-scale, economically vulnerable individuals jointly own. Nonetheless, provided you follow certain rules…your wine can be recognized and understood as offering a certain sensory experience in every country of the world. Until you reach the very highest branches of the French wine tree, indeed, the appellation name will be more important than your own name.” He continues to argue that this sort of situation, where you are not competing as your own ‘brand’ as they do in the new world, but you are part of a larger community, and your individual wine, being labeled as a place and not a brand on your own, fosters the unity and fellowship and community spirit over capitalism’s polarizing and profit-focused spirit. Basically, your success as part of a protected AOC is measured at a community level, whereas brands are measured at an economic level.

This got me to thinking about my experience at Pinot Noir camp in Oregon in 2008. I think Willamette Valley and Oregon as a whole have successfully marketed themselves as a unified region, much more so than any one particular American brand has done. I think to some extent Napa Valley has done something similar. When you think of domestic Cabernet, you think Napa valley over one individual producer. When you think about domestic Pinot Noir, you think about Willamette Valley. When I was a camper, the entire premise of the camp was to work together. We rode busses together, we did tours together. And the wineries never represented themselves in lectures as individuals, but always described their relationships amongst fellow winemakers as helping each other out. I remember one producer saying that she recalls when they first started growing Pinot in that region, she said she would borrow her neighbor’s (a competitor’s) tractors and winemaking equipment, and doing this was commonplace. Furthermore, the during the entire camping experience, the wineries never wore a shirt with their own logo, but wore an Oregon Pinot Noir logoed shirt instead. I loved the true spirit of community that has defined this region, and I believe this is what Andrew Jefford loves about the AOC. In a world where corporations have no loyalty to it’s hard-working employees, where BP oil companies get away with making tax-payers pay for their mistakes, and wall street fat cats feed on the little guy, I too love this idea of community.

Okay, back to the nuts and bolts of the French wine laws. The wine laws fall into 4 categories: Vins de Table (table wines), Vins de Pays (country wines), Vins Delimites de Qualite Superieure (VDQS: delimited wines of superior quality), and AOC or appellation wines:

French table wines are rarely found outside france, and offer nothing to the consumer from a marketing angle because they cannot be labelled with grape variety, year, or a region. So they essentially will tell you nothing about the wine. And, they are generally cheap.

VDQS was created as a sort of wating zone for aspiring AOC wines. It is a very small category, with less than 1% of all French wines found here.

AOC’s are based on the idea of “terroir,” or a sense of placeness that all wines from a specified AOC share. So, obviously the geographical boundaries are very important, geology is also important as it affects slope and aspect of a site, and of course climate is a part of determining an AOC, as are to a lesser degree political boundaries. I think the planting of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay within Burgundy clearly make this point. Where there is limy marl, you will find Pinot Noir, where there is calcerous clay, you will find Chardonnay. Speaking of Grape varieties, in an AOC quality wine, these are regulated. Generally they are traditional, have being planted in that region for centuries assuming that the trials of tribulations of history and tradition in the world of grapegrowing have merit. Yields are controlled, winemaking methods regulated as is chaptilization (the adding of sugar to a must to increase the alcoholic content of a wine…not to sweeten it). Cool climate AOCs can chaptilize and warm climate AOCs cannot, logically. Alcohol levels are also regulated in the different AOCs. Obviously, that is a lot of regulation, and it can arguably lead to limit progress and creativity. But, according to Andrew Jefford, “If you purchase an AOC wine, you are purchasing the true scent and taste of a place, defended, and controlled by the AOC rules and regulations.”

There are 3 types of Vins de Pays: regional, zonal, and departmental. This category was created to allow for more flexibilty in regulations, which has lead to creativity and plantings on non-traditional grapes in certain regions. Terroir no longer plays a big role in this category of French wines. This is the one category that you would think more french producers want to explore. However, they seem to enjoy the AOC framework, and why experiment with different grape plantings if you are a producer of a grand cru wine when you make a great living making your grand cru? So, there is not tons of motivation for quality minded-producers. The big flaw with this category of wines is that in the famous AOC protected regions of Alsace, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Champagne there are no Vins de pays. So, if you are a quality-minded producer in Burgundy and want to experiment with say, Sauvignon Blanc, you would be forced to declassify your wine to table wine level. Yikes!

There are many very valid arguments against the French wine laws. Among these include the fact that they stifle creativity, fail to gaurantee quality (they gaurantee origin, not quality), they are protectionist (protecting against the corrosive effects capitalism has on the human value system…as Jefford argues), they are too complicated for today’s wine consumer. I totally agree. They should allow for varietal labelling like the rest of the new world regions do.

In the end, there are many reasons for and against this system, but I am not a politician or a lawyer, I’m just a teacher. My job is to help decipher the world of wine to my students. If it were up to me, I would have all French wines have maps on them (like the Spanish wines do), grape varietals listed in decending order according to the percentages (like the Australian wines do), and a certification seal of quality (like the South African wines do). These changes would make my job a whole lot easier, and the novice’s learning curve a lot shorter. However, doing something simple and logical would be very ‘unfrench,’ as it’s a culture based on details, perfection, and uncompromising traditions.

Class Dismissed!

Lindsay Pomeroy, The Wine Smarties