from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
Vin de France
How the labels have changed.
AOC has
become AOP
QVDS has
disappeared.
Vins de
Pays have mostly become IGPs.
Vins de
Table have become Vins de France.
Wines
bottled before 2012 may keep their old labels.
AOP
has replaced the AOC on the label.
AOP
AOC
AOP in French stands for Appellation d'Origine Protégé, the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) in the UK and Ireland. For French wines, AOP will indicate specific grapes or blends made in distinct growing areas called appellations. France has over 300 distinct appellations.
What
does the AOP mean for the consumer?
The wines that previously carried the AOC label were
grandfathered in and so all have become AOP wines. The consumer who bought
a specific vintage AOC wine from a particular producer before now buys the same
wine with an AOP label. They will find that nothing in the production
system has changed.
The AOP labels, like the AOC label before, cover the
grapes that may be used, the vineyards that grapes may come from, the way the
grapes are grown, the way the wines are blended, and the method used. Unfortunately, no retesting was carried out
when the labels were changed. Nevertheless, the year of vintage continues to
make a significant difference to a wine's taste. Three years ago the wine may
have been excellent, next year who knows? It would be best if you had an
up-to-date wine book or a wine expert when ordering wine, and the pocket wine book you buy before you travel you'll find just as useful when used at
home.
Wine in
carafe and glass.
www.flickr.com/photos/birdies-perch/3045164784/
The same grape will make wines that have very different tastes.
As an example, here are three famous Burgundy wines that
use the Chardonnay grape and have very different tastes:
Côte de Beaune includes the wines from Puligny-Montrachet,
Chassagne-Montrachet and
Corton-Charlemagne.
Chablis comes
from the four distinct Appellations around the town of Chablis and is associated with the
original grading of the vineyards.
The Mâconnais wine
region produces the famous Pouilly-Fuissé wine and others.
In the French world of food and wine grading, today the
AOP is the big one. Even for the locals, an AOP is the most impressive of the
different grades printed on the labels of French foods and wines. The fact that
a wine’s rating may have been handed out
over 80 years ago and not checked since unfortunately worries very few.
What can
you tell from an AOC or AOP wine label?
An AOP wine may not show the AOP icon on the label,
but all AOP wines must show their Appellation. Only AOP wines have
wine-growing areas called Appellations.
A wine may have two or three labels on the bottle
and another on the cork. A wine’s vintage may be on a label on the bottle’s
neck and lower down and may also be one or two more labels with the wine producer's
name, its appellation, the place where the wine was bottled, along with the
alcohol content and the bottle's volume. Finally, usually at the end of the
label, comes the name of the vintner or wholesaler followed by an address.
Where
the wine was bottled will be shown on a label.
Bottling the wine within the winery is considered a
sign of quality. However, not all small wineries can afford or produce enough
wine to own their private bottling plant, but the industry has a solution for
that. In France, I have seen mobile bottling plants being driven into a
winery's property. Over one to two days, that year's vintage is bottled and
labeled, and then the plant will move on.
Then, like the bigger winery a mile (1.6km) away, the label will read
Mis en Bouteille au Domaine or Chateau, etc., bottled at the winery.
A mobile
bottling plant on the back of a trailer.
----------------------------------------------------------
How many French wines bear an AOP Label?
There are over four hundred and fifty different French
wines entitled to an AOP label, and in Bordeaux, for example, there are more
than 6,000 chateaux (wineries), and many produce two or more different wines.
With numbers like these, how likely are you to know a particular wine, winery,
and the best years? Then more to the point, how do you know which wines suit a
particular dish? A small wine list in a small but good restaurant may offer 30
or even more different wines. That restaurant will have chosen its 30 wines
from among France’s tens of thousands of wineries. Even for the knowledgeable
owner of a French restaurant and his or her very learned sommelier and chef,
making up a wine list is not easy.
-------------------------------------------------------
Have the
wines changed in the last 100 years?
Yes, of course, they have. Some have changed the grapes
included in a particular blend, and nearly all have made changes in their
vineyards' growing practices. In a restaurant with a sommelier, a wine steward,
you can ask and discuss the wines in your budget. The sommelier will have studied wines for
many years and, apart from selling wine, it's their responsibility to taste the wines, see to their
storage and careful aging. The sommelier must build a wine list to cover a wide range of
tastes and price levels. A wine that was graded in 1935 or before will not be exactly the same wine when produced today. The sommelier is
expected to know all the wines on their wine list and to guide you. Caveat emptor, the owner, may be pushing the sommelier to sell a particular wine, so
ask for options.
Since 1935, when the original AOC grades became law, the
way the soil is treated, the way the grapes are treated and the way the
wines are aged has become a science. For
the consumer, those changes are not easily understood; a wine that received its
AOC rating in 1935 may then have been just good enough to make a particular “cru.” The
same wine from its 2015 vintage may now be superb or possibly disastrous;
however, the consumer will not know that from the label. Equally, an individual
winery may be making a terrible wine with a great name, but it will not have had
its AOP rating removed if it kept precisely to the rules. Most consumers will be unlikely to know about
its terrible quality. When you do go to
France, take an up-to-date pocket wine book with you or download an eBook; an encyclopedia is not
required!
--------------------------------------------------------------
What you
need to know about AOC or AOP wines.
with
Champagne as
an introductory example.
There are
some 100 Champagne houses, but most of us will only recognize the names of three or four, while the locals may have heard of thirty; the rest will have their own unique
and determined aficionados, but they will have a limited output. A Champagne House is
a wine producer and blender that sells Champagne under its own name. Most of these houses
buy the bulk of the grapes used in their brew from independent growers.
After the Champagne Houses come wholesalers, called négociant
distributors. These wholesalers buy and sell already bottled Champagne bought from cooperative
blenders and bottlers and have them labeled and sell them under their own names; these
wholesalers will be behind your local supermarket’s label. The small
wholesalers will even sell 100 bottles with your own name; Caveat Emptor the
freight may cost you more than the bottles. Knowing a little about these
Champagne can help make a better choice and save a great deal of money.
Krug Champagne
----------------------------------------------------------
Bordeaux
wines as a more puzzling example:
Bordeaux wines require even more knowledge as there
are so many variations. Bordeaux produces 57 different AOP appellations; that's
57 distinct wine-producing areas, all with different names including St.
Estephe, Pauillac, Margaux, St. Emilion, and Medoc, and then on to the other 53
remembering that each of the 57 has different producers, tastes and gradings.
Following on, you need to learn about the more than
9,000 different wineries! Finally, to
confuse us even more among the wines are five crus (grades) for the older red
wines that were allocated in 1855 and three crus for other reds. To that, there
are also three crus for Bordeaux white wines. So, you do need that wine book or
a wine expert to hold your hand since, with two exceptions, these wines have
never had their grades (crus) checked or changed in over 150 years!
Luckily, restaurant wine-lists of Bordeaux wines are
not divided into 57 different sections. Most restaurants that offer Bordeaux wines divide Bordeaux into just seven affiliated groups. No restaurant
could offer every good Bordeaux wines by name, including the crus and the best
wines of the last twenty-five years; that would cost tens of millions. Apart
from Bordeaux wines, France has nearly 400 other non-Bordeaux AOP wines competing
for space on the wine list and tens of thousands of wineries. None of this
makes the Bordeaux wineries happy; their 9,000 plus wineries will all be
fighting to get their name on a wine-list when there may only be space for 10.
From the examples of Champagne and Bordeaux above,
you will quickly learn, as I did, that choosing a wine, despite the new AOP
label, is not easy. The true connoisseur requires a lifetime of learning and
deep pockets. I have neither the time nor the bank balance, so use your "up-to-date"
book on French wines when considering a Bordeaux.
A 1964
Bordeaux wine label.
The
English language website for all Bordeaux wines https://www.bordeaux.com/gb
French wines include the greatest wines in the world and a well-educated
sommelier who knows the diner’s budget can make all the difference. The
sommelier can guide the diner away from a famous and expensive wine that comes
from a bad year and offer a good wine from a good year from a lesser-known
producer at one-quarter of the price.
-------------------------------------------------
VQDS
The
label that is no longer used.
VQDS wines may still be on a few wine lists. The logo
stands for Vin Délimité de Qualité Supérieure. These were the wines that were
considered candidates for upgrading to an AOC. With the arrival of the AOP, the
wines that carried that VDQS label were either upgraded to the full AOP status
or given the lower IGP status. The last year with wines with VQDS on their
label was the 2015 vintage.
.----------------------------------------------------------
IGP
The
IGP logo has replaced the Vin de Pays label.
IGP
means Indication Géographique Protégée, in English, that's the PGI, the
Protected Geographical Indication.
The Vins de Pays label for wines preceded the
Pan-European IGP for fifty years. These were selected wines from a particular
region, and the IGP continues that tradition. However, like the AOC (now AOP)
wines, all the Vins de Pays were grandfathered into the new IGP label. Whatever
you enjoyed and relished as a Vin de Pays may continue to be appreciated and
valued as an IGP. (In the UK there are wines and liquors with IGP status
including over 130 scotch whisky distilleries). IGP means Indication
Géographique Protégée, in English that's the PGI, the Protected Geographical Indication,
The
English PGI label.
IGP wines may show the grapes used and will always
show the area of France where the wine was made. When a visitor to France sees
an IGP wine made with one of the famous grapes that are often seen on the
bottles of New World wines such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, or Chardonnay,
etc. that visitor has a good idea of the taste. When in France compare a local
IGP wine made with a grape that you know from home, the taste will be different
and usually better. As an example, when you buy a Chardonnay IGP Pays d'Oc, you
will see the name of the producer, the place where the grapes were grown, the wine produced, and the year the grapes were picked. You can order that same Chardonnay wine again and again. Pay's d'Oc wines are from France's southern
Languedoc-Roussillon that is now part of the region of Occitanie.
The
label of a Chardonnay Vin de Pays d'Oc
Now it
has been replaced by a Chardonnay IGP
www.flickr.com/photos/ipalatin/3811322682/
IGP wines are also
allowed to add a subtle amount of pure water made with boiled oak chips to
aging wines; that provide more of that natural oak taste! But do not be
surprised about the use of oak chips; those were always part of the wines
make-up. Knowing how the wines are made does not change their taste. Cognac, Armagnac, and Calvados also permit the use of oak chips just
as Champagne and other wines have their permitted, but different, accepted additions.
Overproduction in an
IGP vineyard
If an IGP producer's
vineyard produces too many grapes per vine, that will lower the quality of the
wine, and so that is not permitted and will push that year's wine into the Vin
de France category. IGP regulations also include taste tests, but I admit that I know little
about this, and I have never seen the results of a taste test, nor heard
anything about the people who do the tasting.
IGP wines on the top
restaurant wine lists.
Over the last few
years, some excellent IGP wines have joined the wine lists of some of France's
top restaurants, including those with Michelin stars. The sommeliers, the
trained wine stewards, who with the chef, will have tasted the IGP wines that
are offered. Then, a few of the best will make it to the restaurant's wine list
and replace less well-considered AOP wines. There are now more than 150 IGP Vin
de Pays wines with reds, whites, and roses, and many many wineries. Knowing
which IGP is the best value from which winery in a particular year requires
that wine book.
-------------------------------------------------
Vins
de France
Vins de France replaced the Vins de Table (table
wines), and they are considered France's lowest ranking wines, though they are
often far from being bad wines. Vins de France are sold without their area of
origin on the label.
The regulations that previously applied to Vins de
Table remain, more or less, the same. For Vins de France. Vins de France are
typically sold under the producer's name or use a brand name that will make it
easier for the consumer to recognize. For a single grape wine, the name of the grape
used is permitted, and the other wines are blends, Most Vins de France are
relatively young wines that are meant to be drunk with only a little aging.
On the table in the home of French consumers, over
75% of the wines are IGP or Vin de France. With the tradition of drinking wine
at home, the French consumer tests a few bottles of different Vins de France
and then buys a case or two of the best.
French consumers know their wines, though the French consumption of wine
has dropped steadily over the last 30 years. Despite that, the French still
hold the title for the highest per capita consumption of wine, with the average French citizen drinking just over
one bottle a week.
I noted above that Vins de France wines are, often far
from being bad wines. The wine may come from a vineyard just outside the areas
of an AOP or IGP wine. The producer will have no choice but to grade his or
her wine as a Vin de France. The wine produced may be an excellent wine, equal
or superior to the vineyards next door. Still, the vineyard just 100 meters
(328 feet) outside the precisely graded wine-growing areas will be a Vin de
France.
There are also cases where an AOP vineyard used
plastic sheeting to prevent too much water from reaching the grapes during a period
of heavy rain, and for that, the wine was downgraded to a Vin de France; the
producer broke the rules. Adding a different grape to a blend will also lose
the producer the right to hold an AOP or IGP grading.
Vins
de France with a brand name on the label.
Some producers of these otherwise fine wines that do
not meet the prescribed format of AOP or IGP have begun selling their Vins de France graded wines with brand names that the consumers and wine critics will
remember. Small restaurants and bistro owners taste these wines, and when they
find a good quality Vins de France, they become their house wines; they will
buy as many crates as they need for five or six months. House wines' low prices and
good quality will bring the local diners back again and again. Other
producers of Vins de France have chosen the path of low-priced marketing with
boxed wines and/or adding fruit flavors that attract a younger crowd. The
success of the New World Wines has shown that you do not need an AOC, AOP, or
IGP to sell good and inexpensive wines.
A
branded Vin de France.
-----------------------------------------------------------
i
A very
short history of the French wine grades.
A few French wines have been graded under one system
or another for some 500 years. These grades are known to oenophiles, the wine
connoisseurs, but that information has little value for most of us. Today's
grading began in 1885 when the wine merchants demanded a way to grade Bordeaux
wines. Then, "crus," grades, were allocated to wines by using the
accepted public thinking of the time along with the current selling price. In
the 150 years since then, only two wines have had their ratings changed despite the changes in the art of growing grapes and making wines. Following on
the publicly accepted Bordeaux wine grading in the 1900s, the French government got involved and made rules for all of the country's wines. In
1935, the government created the Institut National des Appellations d'Origine
(INAO). INAO now oversees labels used for all of France's
foods and wines, including the Label Rouge and the AB label for organic
produce. The appellation legalizes and limits the wines that may be grown in a
specific area. The regulations have changed very little over the years.
Included in the rules are the crus and the names of the chateaus, villages,
which are other forms of grading within the approved grade of AOP, IGP, or Vins
de France. The untrained visitor to France needs that book on French wines
today.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Are you considering buying an old
wine at a bargain price?
If you see a famous or impressively named French AOP wine five or ten years old, or even older at an enticingly low price,
do not buy it! If the wine was marvelous, the French wine mavens would have
been there long before you. Caveat Emptor, just as there is no free lunch,
there are no famous and good old French wines at bargain prices.
There
are no free lunches,
and
that is especially true when it comes to wines.
www.flickr.com/photos/143106192@N03/43513743862/
History
Historically France's different grapes were nearly
always blended to produce the best tastes. The first overseas buyers mostly
came from England, and they drove the vintners to produce better wines.
France's most important wine market was the Port de Bercy, a tax-free village on the Seine River just outside
Paris's original walls. In the 1820s, Bercy was the largest wine market in the
world. Then the Bercy wine wholesalers produced, in their cellars, the first
blends of quite many wines and sent their recipes back to their growers. Some
of these blends remain today, and many other wines are versions of blends that
began in Bercy.
Wine storage in Bercy.
Despite all the science behind the modern wine industry,
the wine experts will tell you and show you that the grapes grown on different
soils do produce wines that taste differently. To that, add the weather in a
particular year and that unique French expression "Terroir." Terroir,
in wine, is the unique difference in taste that comes again and again from a
specific part of a vineyard. A vineyard in the same appellation, but 100 yards
(91 meters) away, may not have that unique difference in taste. Year by year,
the part of a one-acre vineyard may produce markedly better wine than the
neighboring acres, and that is its Terroir. That Terroir comes from the soil,
the slope on a hill, the shade, or lack of it, and so far, no algorithm has
reproduced the difference.
Wine is the perfect accompaniment for French
cuisine, and French diners know very well that a good wine can add to their
enjoyment of their meal. The French diner also knows what damage an expensive
wine can do to his or her pocketbook or wallet! Even as I love wines, I will
not pay more for a wine than I pay for a meal. When someone else is paying, I
may enjoy a wine that I usually would not consider.
--------------------------------------------------
Organic wines
To all of the three wine grades noted above, you may
see additional labels indicating wines produced from organically grown grapes.
The French government AB label, which is the most trusted of all organic
labels, will be seen on wines of all three grades.
AB
Label.
Agriculture
Biologique, Organic Agriculture
----------------------------------------------------
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
Copyright 2010, 2013, 2017, 2023.
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
--------------------------------
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