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French Faux Champagne Fight.
The French Faux Champagne Fight is a serious battle. Ongoing. And, and the best Hollywood tradition – it’s a David and Goliath mix-up. But, more on that later.
First – important to clarify what I mean by “faux” French Champagne. Not, as you might imagine Champagne produced by non-Frenchies claiming to be the real thing. And not “others” (read – “Americans”) labelling any bubbly as “Champagne.”
True, real champagne, comes only from the Champagne region of France. The froggie winos have agreed that anything bubbly outside it’s borders is to be labelled “Cremant.” One of ther oldest of such effervescent beverages hails from the Limoux region. And it has a history that goes back to a monk for whom a famous bubbly is named: Dom Perignon.
Reuters Marcel Michaelson has the sparkling details:
“Limoux barely escaped historical relegation as a local speciality by a flood of Spanish fizz from the other side of the Pyrénées mountains and is now fighting its corner with an offer of quality sparkling wines at affordable prices for its sweet traditional Blanquette de Limoux Methode Ancestrale and dryer Blanquette de Limoux Brut.
“Twenty years ago the quality of Limoux wines in general was not very good,” said Richard Planas, the director of the AOC Limoux professional body. “A lot of work has been done and a lot has changed.”
Limoux lies to the south of the Medieval walled city of Carcassonne, not far from the Mediterranean and the eastern Pyrénées. The area has plenty of sun and rain while the winds from both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean soften the temperature extremes in both summer and winter.
The Roman historian Livy who died in 17 AD mentioned wines from Limoux, but the first mention of a sparkling wine from the area was found in 1531 records kept by the Benedictine monks of the abbey of Saint Hilaire, near the town.
“It is of course difficult to claim being the first, sparkling wine is a natural effect of yeast and it could have been discovered at several places around that time,” Planas said.
Other sparkling wines with a long pedigree are the Gaillac bubbly, also from the southwest, and the Clairette de Die from the northeast.
Legend has it that Dom Pérignon travelled during a pilgrimage to the Saint-Hilaire abbey – on the way to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain and discovered the process of sparkling wines there.
On return to his abbey of Saint-Pierre d’Hautvillers near Reims, he started to experiment with the technique on local wines from the Champagne region with another monk, Dom Thiery Ruinart. Champagne quickly overshadowed its predecessors.
“Champagne is in another league altogether, both in volume terms as in price,” said Planas.
Blanquette means “white one” in southern French, a term also used for a cream sauce in such dishes as the ‘Blanquette de veau’ traditional veal stew.
In 1975, French vintner groups decided that bubbly wines from outside the Champagne are should be labelled “Crémant” (creamy) and the country now knows various varieties such as the Crémant de Bourgogne, Crémant de Loire, Crémant de Bordeaux, Crémant de Jura and also Crémant de Limoux. The term crémant may only be used on wine from France and Luxembourg.
These wines were widely consumed in France as a cheaper, and often regional, alternative to Champagne. But they themselves lost ground to Cava sparkling wine from Catalonia in Northern Spain, with Barcelona’s Freixenet as a big brand name, or the Asti Spumante or Prosecco from Italy.
ANT VS SHOVEL
“For us, the biggest competition is from the Cava,” said Planas. “It is a battle between an ant and a shovel; they make some 300 million bottles against our 10 million.”
Spanish Cava production makes it the second-biggest growing area of sparkling wine after Champagne. Since 1986 when Spain joined the European Economic Community, a forerunner of the EU, the cava found its way across the mountains and to other countries. Limoux only has limited means to resist.
There are 7,800 hectares of vines spread over 41 villages around Limoux, producing sparkling and ‘normal’ wines.
The Blanquette Brut predominantly uses a local grape variety, the Mauzac. Up to 10 percent of Chenin and Chardonnay are permitted.
The producers harvest and press grapes from various parcels and start making basis wines with the first fermentation. These are tasted to determine the blend for the final product.
The blend is put in bottles and a special mixture is added to provoke a second fermentation that creates the bubbles. This second fermentation takes nine months, during which the bottles are regularly turned to let the sediments settle in the neck.
The Crémant de Limoux is made with Chardonnay and Chenin and some addition of Mauzac and Pinot Noir. The Blanquette Methode Ancestrale uses only Mauzac, is trickier to make and needs to be bottled in March when the moon is at a certain point.
No mixtures are added to the bottles at the beginning of the second fermentation and some sediment remains in the bottle. These ‘pure’ traditional wines are sweeter due to the sugar in Mauzac that fuels the fermentation.”
Read more HERE.
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French Wine Gets Screwed
French Wine Gets Screwed. At least some of it. And it’s about time according to well known wino Luc Charlier. He stopped using corks in 2005. Now, his wine gets “Screwed.”
And he predicts that will be the fate of all French Wines within the next five years. DA BG doubts the cork die-hards will be down with this!
anywho….the screwy/corky details from my fellow scibbler Ken Pottinger at French Wine Online:
Chinon Red from the Loire Valley, cork stoppers not metal caps, of course . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)(This post has been updated — see end of story — to include a response from Amorim, the cork stopper manufacturers.)
In their place — proudly and against all present opposition — will reign (aluminium) screw caps, which he considers as – “the best alternative to cork ever”.
According to Antonin Iommi-Amunategui a French wine writer, self-confessed non conformist and blog contributor to Vin & Société website (an association representing all involved in the industry), Luc Charlier insists that every bottle he ships from his cave – at prices ranging between 9 and 40 euros — be screw-capped.
Stelvin Screw Cap Alternative Wine Closure (Photo credit: WineFolly.com)The Flemish outlier maintains his approach is winning the heated argument between natural cork purists and upstart aluminium caps but he will admit to some strong opposition from ‘certain French restauranteurs’. These purists insist they will only order his wine if he reverts to traditional cork because, in their view, any non-natural cork stopper is sacrilege.
The pro- and contra-arguments are not new but this time round they might just herald a trend which only a consumer revolt could halt.
Languedoc – alongside Aquitaine, Riviera and Champagne – is among the top four wine-growing regions in France and should M Flamande’s predictions materialise France’s second most important industry could provoke a revolution to rival that only of 1789.
Despite the weight of natural history perched on his shoulders M. Charlier is an unflinching conductor of his cap liturgy — the cork stopper offers only disadvantages — — launching his recital thus:
- Firstly the long-held belief that wine needs to breathe in the bottle — something natural cork does par excellence – is nonsense: “Contrary to what people say, once the wine is in the bottle it does not need any oxygen to mature,” (which is true if you stick with young wines but hardly credible if you are laying down an investment stock in the cellar of your chateau).
- Next Portugal’s Américo Amorim, the 78-year-old world cork king, is a liability for the wine industry: “Mr. Amorim admitted at a luncheon once after ‘playing cat and mouse’ with us that ‘even in my best range of cork stoppers, 4% are defective’. That means one in every 25 bottles goes down the drain and that is unacceptable waste” says M. Charlier.
- Then, the crescendo rising, he tackles ‘green issues’ “Cork, it is not at all green. We have 4x4s in the cork forests […] and above all the industry uses huge amounts of chlorinate derivatives to clean the corks. The notion that ‘cork = ecology’ is hogwash,” claims M Charlier. On this point, la Fédération Française des Syndicats du Liège (FFSL) says that “since 1999 a guide to good manufacturing practice has been in place and among its requirements bans the use of chlorine products during processing.”
- Finally our redoubtable Languedocien climaxes on: “natural cork’s main drawback is the infamous cork taint related to cork contamination.” Are these cork taint claims accurate or timely? Obviously the FFSL puts it differently: “The latest figures show less than 1% of cork taint defects in the industry”. Nevertheless, for our unfazed winemaker, the alternative is of course the screw cap, which he claims is used in “30% of all wine bottles around the world.”
On M. Charlier’s last point — cork taint is caused by naturally occurring fungus coming in contact with chlorine — the Portuguese industry would in basso profundo voce doubtless point out it has made great technological strides in overcoming cork taint over the past two decades and with significant success.
A box of corks (Photo credit: hey mr glen)See here for their view of an “accurate estimate of the rate of cork taint”.
Or as Tom Cannavan noted in 2008: “with a history for stoppering bottles that stretches back hundreds of years, cork is woven into the very fabric of wine – as crucial to its development as oak barrels, glass bottles, or even the grape itself. When cork’s fundamental suitability for the purpose is challenged, developments are worth careful consideration” … Doubts have been raised about alternative closures too. In the 2006 International Wine Challenge in London, a ‘faults diary’ was kept on almost 13,500 bottles that were opened. 7.2% of the wines showed some sort of fault, classified as being closure-related, chemical-related or microbiological-related. TCA was a major culprit, but then so too were oxidation, excessive sulphide levels (‘reduction’) and the unwelcome rogue yeast called Brettanomyces. The conclusion was that whilst the scourge of TCA was almost entirely a problem for cork, other faults were prevalent in wines closed with its alternatives”.
Others have raised the temperature in the other direction defending natural cork against all comers: petrochemical upstarts, artificial invaders and horror-of-horrors the ‘clik’ closure now used by some champagne defectors.
George M. Taber, author of To Cork or Not to Cork: Tradition, Romance, Science, and the Battle for the Wine Bottle says, “in the wine industry, [it’s a] very hot emotional issue. [For] some people it’s like a discussion of religion. People are either pro-cork or not.” One of the big problems with having an opinion is that while you may be able to tell just by looking at a bottle whether it’s sealed with a screwcap, you can’t necessarily tell anything else about the closure—is it a natural cork, a plastic cork, a glass cork or something else? It could be any of a number of popular choices”.
So is the French wine cork lobby, closely linked to its chief supplier, ally and leading trench fighter Américo Amorim, under life-threatening siege from the powerful combined aluminium/synthetic stopper industry armies ?
Well Portugal, the world’s largest natural cork producer (50% of global production) — an industry dominated by the Amorim group — has for more than a decade been fighting a multi-pronged, technological and eco-friendly war alongside its French allies, against the insurgents.
Clearly this battle will be won or lost in the vineyards of La France Viticole . France produces 20% of all wine on the planet and itself consumes 14% of all global production while the industry earns the country some 6.2 billion euros and employs a quarter of a million people.
Vineyards in Saumur, Loire Valley. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)So the stakes are high for France, Portugal, the Amorims, French wine traditionalists, mother nature’s cork oaks and discerning wine drinkers on one side and the brash aluminium smelters and synthetics manufacturers on the other.
Canny French winemakers and traders who over centuries have carefully crafted a trusted allure and mystique, promoted a dignified tradition and fine-tuned a luxury image for the unique characteristics of wine terroir, are today challenged by the same cap brashly worn by a Coca-Cola bottle.
Meanwhile on a related flank, according to a rue 89 report, cork is being pushed to respond to the concerns of niche ‘bio’ or organic winemakers.
Henri Milan, an organic winemaker in Provence admits the cork stoppers he uses are “not more natural than the alternatives offered (petrochemical by-products or aluminium). Generally he says, cork manufacturers in attempting to fill cracks and fissures and make the cap smoother, use a mixture of glue and sawdust. Additionally they bleach the cork with hydrogen peroxide … I reject these practices which I believe are the cause of a new type of cork taint that appeared in the 80s – coinciding with these practices … I have been on a mission to replace the silicone and paraffin used in natural cork stoppers with organic coatings such as beeswax”, he told the newspaper. Hmm, more fuel for M. Luc Charlier’s fire perhaps?
Meanwhile here are some recent reports and video clips from the defenders as carried on one of the Amorim corporate websites:
French winemakers speak out on cork
French winemakers Sandrine Garbay of Château d’Yquem and Philippe Guigal of E. Guigal have joined a group of French wine industry professionals speaking out on the virtues of natural cork wine closures on the Planete Liege website. Watch the interviews on the following links:
FULL STORY
Sandrine Garbay of Château d’Yquem
Philippe Guigal of E.Guigal
and if you’ve ever wondered how Cork is harvested……
Read more: http://www.french-news-online.com/wordpress/?p=10328#ixzz1zdkh1stI
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French Country Travel Life Abandoned Palace
French Country Travel Life Abandoned Palace. Yes, there is such an animal. It is located in the capital of this fair land. And it has been abandoned, not only by it’s present occupant, but by many of the former as well. However, would never be abandoned by DA BG.( Should I be called upon.)
Traditionally, the Elyseé Palace is the “Home” of the French President. The “White House” of froggie land.
But just as traditionally, a majority of French Prezzies, both present and past, have chosen to hang their hats elsewhere. For a variety of reasons.
My fellow scribbler “Shartka” leads us further down the road of Presidental Palace Abandonment:
“The choice of François Hollande to stay in his modest 50m2 apartment in the 15th rather than enjoy the sumptuous luxury of the presidential Elysée Palace may seem like the maladroit political symbolism of a freshly elected greenhorn, but few presidents have actually lived in the palace.
Georges Pompidou rarely slept in the second-floor private apartments of the palace, as was the case for subsequent presidents Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, François Mitterrand and Nicolas Sarkozy. In addition, going back to De Gaulle, the idea of moving the presidential offices has continually resurfaced, most recently in 2008.
The powerful presidency put in place by the 1958 Constitution necessitated a considerable increase in presidential staffers. De Gaulle, at any given time had around 40 compared with René Coty’s dozen or so. Finding it too small and outdated, De Gaulle did not like the Elysée Palace. He also reportedly did not appreciate the fact that you could not land a helicopter on the premises.
Invalides and the Chateau de Vincennes were both researched as possible future presidential digs, although he finally dropped the idea, faced with serious reluctance from close advisors.
In order to free up space in the palace, he kicked out a number of people living their, turned the Royal suite that welcomed foreign Heads of State into offices and acquired a couple neighboring buildings. For De Gaulle, it was only reluctantly that he lived in the palace, escaping for a weekend in Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises as often as possible.
Thus, the Elysée palace has more often than not served as an office rather than a home for France’s presidents. However, there were exception. Jacques Chirac made a political statement of living in the Elysée saying that when you’re at the helm of the State, you must be there day and night, although Chirac is also known for having made a career out of palatial state-financed housing.”
Read more HERE
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