Marcel Richaud & Michel Bettane (photos Bertrand Celce/Vinifera)
There's been an interesting debate lately between two important currents of the wine world in Paris. This took place november 19th at a one-day public event named Autrement Vin which was organized by the Toulouse-based wine communication agency Vinifera : about one hundred vintners gathered at le Cent Quatre in Paris, along with wine critics, wine bloggers (like major French blogger Jacques Berthomeau) and a public of wine amateurs. The wines were split and grouped in several categories like Les Innovants, Les Inclassables, Les Oubliés and Les Durables and freely accessible to the visitors for tasting, with the vintners or the winery people nearby to explain the wines if necessary. See this page and click on a category to see which wines were presented. You could just help yourself freely or sometimes there was someone to help and fill your glass (the pours were generous). In the evening, a debate between Michel Bettane (the wine critic) and Marcel Richaud (the winemaker) helped confront two different visions of wine. To help visualize the difference of approach between the two, let's remind who the two represent : Michel Bettane is a leading wine critic in France and he is one of the two men behind the Bettane & Dessauve guide. He uttered very provocative statements against natural wines, speaking of ayatollahs to qualify the vintners of this sector, or speaking of biocons (I guess you get what the French word cons means, bio meaning organic) to qualify the amateurs following these wines, or saying blantly that organic wine doesn't exist in the first place (read his interview in L'Express - click above the add to access to the article)... Marcel Richaud is a now-well-known figure in the natural, non-interventionist and additives-free wine world. He is one of these passionate vintners whose wines are now and then refused the Appellation for being pointed as "atypical" by the Agreement Commissions, as this post by Le Vin de Mes Amis relates in French. This type of debate is set to multiply in the near future as natural wine is getting status among the wine amateurs and as the highest users of additives in the wine industry resist the transparency push by the consumers.
Visitors enjoying the wines
The visitors had time before and after the debate (and even during for those who listened from afar) to taste the large panel of wines. There were very different styles of wines indeed. The organizers wanted the event to be a relax and no-fuss one, emphasizing the importance of learning to love different wines and also of leaving the beaten path. I was taking pictures for the event and didn't taste as much as I would have liked too, but there were nice things out there (I'll add some of my notes later). The wineries had paid a fee to participate from what I learned while chatting with someone who had wines there, but it was at the same time an opportunity to touch the Paris wine amateurs and a way to gather under the same roof vintners who otherwise don't meet often if their work philosophies are at odds.
The Bettane/Richaud debate begins
To translate a few words from the polemical Bettane-interview in L'Express' article first, the journalist in this interview notes that Bettane doesn't like much the "nature trend" in wine (la mode nature), to which Bettane answers that the organic wine doesn't exist in the first place (Mais tout simplement parce que le vin bio n'existe pas !), and he bases his conclusion on the fact that there is no room in today's legislation for the natural wines, the law having targetted only the vineyard management part of the trade. There's quite a lot of bad faith in his assertion already at this point because even if the law takes only in account the chemicals in the vineyard, there still are a growing number of vintners who have chosen to vinify without the magical tricks of additives and discreet external addings to the juice. Further, he continues : Certain vignerons and their distributors, helped by a small band of sincere but crank advisors (prescripteurs, which is hard to translate in English, is more like the one who prescribes medicine) propose "natural" or "authentic" wines. But unless proved otherwise, every wine fitting today's European legal obligations is automaticly authentic or natural because it is the result of a natural fermentation of a samely-natural fruit [tout vin répondant aux normes légales de la législation européenne est forcément authentique ou nature, puisque issu de la fermentation naturelle d'un fruit qui l'est tout autant. Nous ne connaissons pas encore de culture de la vigne hors sol, d'ersatz de raisin ou de levure artificielle.]. That's more bad faith on the subject, I think : Does he really think that because the EC or the French laws ignores the difference between an additives-stuffed wine and an additive-free wine, that makes the former as natural as the latter ?? How someone so knowledgeable on wine can possibly shrug off the difference between a wine made with extensive use of additives to format and correct it, and a wine made without such tricks ?? That the EC regulations doesn't make the difference is one thing, but we amateurs can't dismiss these things. Just one example to show how far wineries can go today : we've fond memories of our favorite pale rosé for the summer apéritif and it happens (I discovered that last summer) that several biotech products are actually used to settle this color of rosé wines to the one favored by the market (see the pictures on second page of this Pdf document, it's amazing...). The use of some of these products for bleaching purposes is widespread according to several winemakers I spoke to even though this document seems to say that it is limited. And no need to say, you can do the same for the taste with a wide range of other products. Of course, these tricks are dismissed by some vintners, including by those who make natural wine, and we should highlight it instead of ostracize them.
Tasting different colors
Whatever, I happened to have my Microtrack with me and decided to record the debate (recording time 47 minutes), here it is :
This embed player doesn't have a timer, so if you want to follow the debate with the translation and the precise timing, go to my Zshare audio file with opening a separate window (there's apparently no way to embed zshare files into a post): Richaud-Bettane debate. Look at the time on the bottom-right of the player, it will help you locate where things are said (and go straight with the cursor to the part of the debate you're interested into).
............
The man speaking at the beginning is Laurent Bazin who did a good job to help a better confrontation of ideas between the two opiniated wine people. He speaks first about what Bettane said in L'Express or elsewhere and which created waves in the blogosphere and among the targeted natural-wine vintners, like (on min:00 sec:30) the word biocons that Bettane called upon the natural-wine amateurs. Then, Laurent Bazin presents Marcel Richaud and soon the mike is given to Michel Bettane (3:25) who says first that the words were taken out of their context (I can hear a laugh in the background in the public). Then he says that he loves the organic growers and has many friends in this group. then he says generalities about the important role of governments to make laws that protect the consumer [on the whole I heard him several times praising the State and the Appellation bodies if I remember] and to avoid that the distributors use uncorrectly the organic word. Then he slips again (on 5:22 ) with considering that the natural winemakers and their friends are into a religious drift [a heavy insinuation in France where there is a Pavlovian reflex against small, non-conventional religious groups easily pointed to as dangerous and subversive sectes] with their crank (illuminé) discourse of no-additive use, natural vinification etc. Then, as Bettane tries to veer on a more moderate chat, speaker Laurent Bazin says (on 5:45) that he should elaborate more on these accusations and names like cranks (illuminés) and ayatollas that he uses against the natural-wine vintners and their friends.
Winery people meeting wine amateurs
Michel Bettane agrees (5:53) and says that he bases his judgment on the fact that a wine can loose the good potential of the grapes when bad yeasts develop on poorly managed grapes, when there's been bad hygiene in the chai, refermentation problems occur and so on, the result being having a deviant fermentation, wrong aromas and at the end bad wine. The answer is not very clear here but Bettane seems to imply that a wine made without biotech additives and on a non-interventionist way often ends up being plain bad at the end; it would be interesting to check how many natural wines he has ever tasted. Maybe he isn't that prolific a taster... Then (7:13) he faults the French language for some of the problems when we speak about organic wine, stating that our words are translated from English. But the word biologique that we use to mean organic has nothing to do with the English language as far as I know and his thinking is not very clear here. Plus, everybody a bit familiar with the wine understands what means natural wine when you explain them, and the only reason they didn't understand before was that the conventional vintners and the wine industry at large had made sure for years that they are kept in the dark about the additives tricks being used in the vatroom... He then complains (8:00) that he's being pointed to as lobbying for the industrial wine interests and for Monsanto, adding jokingly that if we had a look in his bank account we would notice that Monsanto is particularly stingy...
One of the buffets : Basque charcuterie (superb ham)
Laurent Bazin (8:45) explains one of the technical terms used by Bettane, intrant being a word meaning imported [into the juice]. Bettane likes to make diversions on words and he criticizes (8:53) the use of the term "levures artificielles" (artificial yeasts) by some people, sometimes the term industrial yeasts is even used, to which he says that any yeast being a living organism, all yeasts are natural... Yes, of course, but here again we still can consider that beyond this linguistic subtility (external yeasts, lab yeasts, industrial yeasts...), lab-selected yeasts are a bit alien compared to the indigenous yeasts that grew on the grapes and in the vatroom... He goes on and says without elaborating that within the European legislation and considering the AOC rules, the authorized additives are relatively few. Here again, wen you see all the labtech products sold in the Viti-Vini shops in the wine regions in France and elsewhere (and they wouldn't take the risk to sell something that is not allowed) and that you can list in my additives post, the comment is a bit short of substance. And the natural wines which are denied here and there the Appellation status are often precisely deemed atypical because they don't resort to artificial corrections to fit a certain aromatic and mouthfeel format designed long time ago by conventional vignerons. On 9: 26, speaker Laurent Bazin asks back on Bettane's affirmation that there is a sect strong of several dozens or hundreds of vignerons who make the apology of these natural wines, Bettane nods that it's something like several dozens vignerons and several hundreds wine amateurs plus a few merchants and cavistes [see here a few of the bad guys...].
The wine-taster duty
He goes on with saying (10:42) that this is always the same band of grandes gueules ["big mouths", alluding here to the natural wine vintners] vignerons who monopolise the media and the blogs, lead certain organized movements etc..., adding that these vignerons are not very clean in their own field... At 11:04, Marcel Richaud answers after being asked to by Laurent Bazin, and he humbly says that he can only answer in his own name. He tells about the risks he took by using no additives (intrants) and very little or no sulphur. He deplores that natural wine vintners are being categorized in a frame and says that it's not very good. He explains why he decided to take the organic certification, and that was to create a feeling of trust among the customers, to make sure that there was no room for tricks in the vineyard. At 13:59 Michel Bettane jokes that it's like if he needed a law certificate to prove everyday that he is faithful to his wife, he thinks that it is not good to enter a certification, first because there are several groups chapels, the organic vs the biodynamic, and he tells the story about his friend Yvonne Hegoburu (Domaine de Souch) who was expelled in spite of her talent and courage from her certification because she was accused by fellow, supposedly-same-philosophy vignerons of using too much of such or such product, and Michel Bettane considers that it's ridiculous (he gets a point here, I agree). At 15:37, Marcel Richaud says that the AOC rules are not strict enough, particularly for the external yeasts. He says that the vignerons are prevented to make quality, to make wines based on terroirs, because there is a normalisation of the typicity by the Agreement Commissions. At 17:45, Michel Bettane answers that these AOC were set up because the vignerons were in need of regulations and he deplores that the minister or the State is faulted for the problems. He says that as the majority of vignerons decide, there was a natural push toward a standardization.
The Richaud-Bettane debate
At 18:25, Daniel Berger from the blog mtonvin asks a question : Is there a need for a European AOC . Also, in front of the world competition, can we consider that there are European wines ? At 19:00, Bettane says that wine being an edible product, it can't stay out of reach from the regulations and control of the States, and that the Appellation notion is legitimate. Yes, but the French model may not be the best for all of Europe. Then (19:53) Richaud says that a European normalization would defend more the brand side of the AOC, which he considers being a good thing even though he criticizes now and then the AOC system. He just regrets that the question of the SO2 being added into the wine has not been considered by the rules, as well as the list of additives at the disposal of vintners. He says that there's a lot of progress to make before the AOC really defends quality work in the wine. Bettane agrees (21:52) and follows a discussion about the rules, Europe and the AOC. At 23:30, a vigneronne from the Minervois, Françoise (her last name eluded me) takes the mike : the Ministry obliged the vignerons to re-write the rules of the Appellation but without the agreement commissions that they decided to get rid of, they don't have the financing that they earned through them. Now, external commissions are used and because of that the grower syndicates are poorer. Bazin (24:57) asks wisely if that makes the wine poorer ? She says that the collective side is important still. The following is often more syndicate-, vignerons organisations related and is less interesting as the wine takes the back seat. There's the question of the minority grape variety still, which is brought by laurent Bazin. Here Bettane faults the vignerons in the AOC organization for refusing to integrate these minority varieties (like, he says, Beaujolais growers who don't want to see anything other than Gamay). He says that individually, the vignerons can be very smart and wise but collectively through the AOC where they indeed can make the law, they are very stupid (he gets a point here). But what he forgets to say I think, it's that the fault is on the conventional vignerons here, the natural-wine growers and vintners being much more open on the question as they don't hesitate to label a minority/forbidden minor variety as table wine when they consider that the terroir deserves it. The woman takes the mike back (23:40) to say that she tried with others to change things but the INAO and the Ministry prevented them to do that. She tried to have for example in the Grands Crus the lifting of the restrictions regarding the type of variety, as Marc Parcé in Collioures and Deiss in Alsace advocated, and this Marc-Parcé initiative was bluntly refused by the INAO people. Bettane asks who exactly in the INAO prevented that, we just learn from the vigneronne that there are four individuals, all of them ENA bright minds, who have the power to block things there. [For non-French readers who don't know what ENA means, it's the elite administration school which trains all the future high-rank fonctionnaires destined to occupy key posts in the bulging French administration - a quasi ruling class, in short].
The public listening to the debate
I dont sum up and translate the whole of the debate but we had some insight from within the wine trade about the hurdles faced by the vignerons regarding the rules and the complicated AOC frame. On the whole, I still think that Marcel Richaud could have been more offensive with his debate versus Michel Bettane but we in the public who understand his fight for real wines should have also shown more supportive (I have the excuse that I was there to take pictures). Bettane had his own supporters, an enologist takes the mike for example (36:16) to point to wines with flaws that are made here and there, including in this room [he obviously alludes to some natural wines], to bad wines where something went wrong, and that's the important thing, organic or not, he says, the final quality of the wines. Let's stop with the sects and the chapels, he adds [that's a typical Bettane argument].Bettane follows suit saying that the AOC never protected anything and that the medium price for an AOC is 2 Euro in France [he should tell us where he buys his wine...] Correction here : Michel Bettane meant bulk price paid to growers (see comment below) - still, that seems very low, but I guess he knows what he says. Richaud (38:50) agrees about the wines with defaults but he says that the level and appreciation of the flaws of a given wine must be left to the consumers to judge, he pleads for more freedom [good point, Marcel Richaud humbly says a right thing even though he could have been more offensive in the matter] and says that people shouldn't be antagonized because of the style of wines that they like. Another person in the public (39:46) intervenes and says that industrial formatted wines can bring newcomers to wine, and those people who later be drinking more elaborate wines, and why not natural wines... At 42:00, a woman vigneron says interesting things about the responsability of big chemical companies who pushed for the use of chemicals and about the disease touching many growers and workers accross the country.
Comments
excellent stuff, Bert. Wish I had been there. Maybe catch up with you in Feb?-Alice
Thank you, Alice ! Yes, I should be around in february, we'll find time for a glass or a dinner somewhere...
Jason : yes, the thinking is strange here, as well as the logic, if there is any. I guess there's a cultural gap, or a generational gap that makes him uncomfortable and explains this rethoric, I don't know.
Excellent article, Bert (as usual:-)), I was waiting for a longer report on this event, in which I couldn't participate at that moment because of the fee (as all small vignerons, I had to pay my annual social fees and invest in the next bottling...so it was a bad moment, to pay 750€ just to present one wine, even when there was a "special reduction" just before the end of the inscription). Being part of the natural-wine methods in the vineyard and in my cellar, I would have liked to participate in the debate - so thank you once again for this long transcription, which allows to notice, that Michel Bettane used the same arguments as usual - you pointed out very well, where it becomes polemic and really bad faith....
I think, the woman winemaker from the Minervois was probably Francoise LeCalvez, from Château Coupe Roses at La Caunette http://www.coupe-roses.com/en/index.html (but I haven't found a list of all participants yet). If I'm right, I can tell that she and specially her husband, Pascal Frissant, have been well known figures of the organic movement in the Languedoc, fighting in the first place for more quality in wines, and very far from being sectarians or illuminés! His work for southern wines and their improvement for the last 30 years and his personal way would be worth an interview here:-)!
It's interesting, that we have to wait for "the photographer" to give us a complete report, while professional writers (journalists or blogger) hadn't very much to tell yet.
I am surprised by your translation (biased interpretation?) of many passages of my contribution, people with a better understanding or better honesty will correct. The 2 euros price is of course the average price paid to the grower, by the trade, not the price in wine shops! The average price for one liter of Corbières is less than one euro! For Bordeaux far less than two...Ad be assured that I taste hundreds of what you are lucky to call in english organic (and not bio) wines every year and more than one hundred of organig growers making excellent wines are selected in my guide for numerous years.....The problem comes from the bad ones and their supporters.....
Thank you Mr Bettane for these corrections. I had been thinking about the possibility that you meant the grower price for this two-Euro rate you were talking about and I should have noted it.
Of course my sentence "Maybe he isn't that prolific a taster" was a bit provocative and I never doubted that you have tasted quite a lot of natural wines too, but you know for having practiced it yourself that a bit of provocation brings salt in a debate...
Iris :
Thanks for all the info. Yes, now I see, I should have known her, Françoise LeCalvez, I know about Pascal Frissant's work and tireless energy and even met him shortly a few years ago. Of course I'd be happy to make a portrait/post with interview on him... It's time that I get back to your region at last...
Mr. Bettane is right. There´s no organic or biodinamic wines. Those words cannot be applied to wines. Only to grapes. So the correct would be "wine made from organic(1rst stage) or biodinamic(2nd stage) grapes". He knows this too well from long, long time.
And because of this is that he is clearly in bad faith.
There's something that is missed by Michel Bettane's in his relentness attacks against the natural-wine movement that he thinks is limited to a small band of rebels, it's that (and he seems to ignore it) the top estates of Bordeaux and Burgundy are actually also vinifying on a totally un-interventionist way and without additives tricks (even if they don't trumpet it, for reasons I will dwell on one day)...
Dear Friends, During my thirty years in the wine trade (the last 12 as a winery owner and winemaker) I have sold many vintages of
Domaine Richaud, some at retail, some wholesale. These are without doubt among the finest wines in the entire Rhone region. Making wines of this consistent quality and distinctive personality without intervention requires exceptional skill and discipline. Deep pockets are a necessity as well for times when things go the wrong way. Modern culture has evolved around the idea that doing that which is safe and/or convenient is the default rather than that which is best and the right thing in a holistic sense.
It is very easy to fail and fail badly in the attempt to make wine without additives so when someone succeeds so notably as M. Richaud, his skill, his insight and his talent should be held up and applauded by all of us who love wine. Owen
`
Great article!
The discussion here in austria is the same- but not in this public way. The governmental functionaries discuss with the vignerons behind closed doors. Even those who do organic do not have the same opinion - and that's the problem. The consumer should not know what is really going on with the wines. The consumer here really thinks that wine is a natural product by itself - and thats wrong.
Here in austria we have approx. 200 different yeasts for use. Some are neutral but some produce very strange aromatics which have nothing to do with the origin of the wines .But there are far many additives in the stores too. The agrar concerns know that the austrian vignerons live well and they push lots of pesticides and additives on the market. Everyone can afford it. I can tell you there is big money in this market - the concerns need people in the government to push their products and to make the correct LAWS!!!
Yes - for sure - the consumer should decide which wine is good or not. Here a bunch of 6 people decide by blind tasting if a wine is good in quality or not. This is far away from the real market.
greetings
gottfried
Thanks Bertrand. I read the piece in L'express and thought, well never mind...
In the end it should be up to the consumer to decide. Never understood why some AOC's are so famous. Same here in Italy, nice Barolo for instance is virtually non existent but yet it remains famous/popular expensive. Dare I say Champagne fits the same hat.
I'm always very weiry of wine guides, I used to use them but have given up. I never understand how they function. It is impossible to be objective and surely their tastes are not mine. Mr. Bettane mentions 'faults or defects' in wine. To me using industrial yeasts etc. kills wine, makes it loose it's fresh taste. Most of the time it ends up like these 'nice'cookies you buy in supermarkets they all have that weird taste to them and most of the time you won't finish a bottle. Now that is what I would call a defect.
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excellent stuff, Bert. Wish I had been there. Maybe catch up with you in Feb?-Alice
Posted by: Alice Feiring | December 11, 2009 at 09:23 PM
Bettane is a fossil ,lost in simplistic and shallow thinking process.. unable to see things on a larger tableau.
Posted by: [email protected] | December 12, 2009 at 01:21 AM
Thank you, Alice ! Yes, I should be around in february, we'll find time for a glass or a dinner somewhere...
Jason : yes, the thinking is strange here, as well as the logic, if there is any. I guess there's a cultural gap, or a generational gap that makes him uncomfortable and explains this rethoric, I don't know.
Posted by: Bertrand | December 12, 2009 at 09:45 AM
Excellent article, Bert (as usual:-)), I was waiting for a longer report on this event, in which I couldn't participate at that moment because of the fee (as all small vignerons, I had to pay my annual social fees and invest in the next bottling...so it was a bad moment, to pay 750€ just to present one wine, even when there was a "special reduction" just before the end of the inscription). Being part of the natural-wine methods in the vineyard and in my cellar, I would have liked to participate in the debate - so thank you once again for this long transcription, which allows to notice, that Michel Bettane used the same arguments as usual - you pointed out very well, where it becomes polemic and really bad faith....
I think, the woman winemaker from the Minervois was probably Francoise LeCalvez, from Château Coupe Roses at La Caunette http://www.coupe-roses.com/en/index.html (but I haven't found a list of all participants yet). If I'm right, I can tell that she and specially her husband, Pascal Frissant, have been well known figures of the organic movement in the Languedoc, fighting in the first place for more quality in wines, and very far from being sectarians or illuminés! His work for southern wines and their improvement for the last 30 years and his personal way would be worth an interview here:-)!
It's interesting, that we have to wait for "the photographer" to give us a complete report, while professional writers (journalists or blogger) hadn't very much to tell yet.
Posted by: Iris | December 12, 2009 at 05:27 PM
I am surprised by your translation (biased interpretation?) of many passages of my contribution, people with a better understanding or better honesty will correct. The 2 euros price is of course the average price paid to the grower, by the trade, not the price in wine shops! The average price for one liter of Corbières is less than one euro! For Bordeaux far less than two...Ad be assured that I taste hundreds of what you are lucky to call in english organic (and not bio) wines every year and more than one hundred of organig growers making excellent wines are selected in my guide for numerous years.....The problem comes from the bad ones and their supporters.....
Posted by: Michel Bettane | December 13, 2009 at 09:59 AM
Thank you Mr Bettane for these corrections. I had been thinking about the possibility that you meant the grower price for this two-Euro rate you were talking about and I should have noted it.
Of course my sentence "Maybe he isn't that prolific a taster" was a bit provocative and I never doubted that you have tasted quite a lot of natural wines too, but you know for having practiced it yourself that a bit of provocation brings salt in a debate...
Iris :
Thanks for all the info. Yes, now I see, I should have known her, Françoise LeCalvez, I know about Pascal Frissant's work and tireless energy and even met him shortly a few years ago. Of course I'd be happy to make a portrait/post with interview on him... It's time that I get back to your region at last...
Bert
Posted by: Bertrand | December 13, 2009 at 12:07 PM
Mr. Bettane is right. There´s no organic or biodinamic wines. Those words cannot be applied to wines. Only to grapes. So the correct would be "wine made from organic(1rst stage) or biodinamic(2nd stage) grapes". He knows this too well from long, long time.
And because of this is that he is clearly in bad faith.
Posted by: Oneill Brickman | December 13, 2009 at 05:52 PM
There's something that is missed by Michel Bettane's in his relentness attacks against the natural-wine movement that he thinks is limited to a small band of rebels, it's that (and he seems to ignore it) the top estates of Bordeaux and Burgundy are actually also vinifying on a totally un-interventionist way and without additives tricks (even if they don't trumpet it, for reasons I will dwell on one day)...
Posted by: Bertrand | December 15, 2009 at 09:17 AM
Dear Friends, During my thirty years in the wine trade (the last 12 as a winery owner and winemaker) I have sold many vintages of
Domaine Richaud, some at retail, some wholesale. These are without doubt among the finest wines in the entire Rhone region. Making wines of this consistent quality and distinctive personality without intervention requires exceptional skill and discipline. Deep pockets are a necessity as well for times when things go the wrong way. Modern culture has evolved around the idea that doing that which is safe and/or convenient is the default rather than that which is best and the right thing in a holistic sense.
It is very easy to fail and fail badly in the attempt to make wine without additives so when someone succeeds so notably as M. Richaud, his skill, his insight and his talent should be held up and applauded by all of us who love wine. Owen
`
Posted by: W. H. Owen | December 20, 2009 at 12:40 AM
Great article!
The discussion here in austria is the same- but not in this public way. The governmental functionaries discuss with the vignerons behind closed doors. Even those who do organic do not have the same opinion - and that's the problem. The consumer should not know what is really going on with the wines. The consumer here really thinks that wine is a natural product by itself - and thats wrong.
Here in austria we have approx. 200 different yeasts for use. Some are neutral but some produce very strange aromatics which have nothing to do with the origin of the wines .But there are far many additives in the stores too. The agrar concerns know that the austrian vignerons live well and they push lots of pesticides and additives on the market. Everyone can afford it. I can tell you there is big money in this market - the concerns need people in the government to push their products and to make the correct LAWS!!!
Yes - for sure - the consumer should decide which wine is good or not. Here a bunch of 6 people decide by blind tasting if a wine is good in quality or not. This is far away from the real market.
greetings
gottfried
Posted by: Herrenhof | December 25, 2009 at 11:22 AM
Thanks Bertrand. I read the piece in L'express and thought, well never mind...
In the end it should be up to the consumer to decide. Never understood why some AOC's are so famous. Same here in Italy, nice Barolo for instance is virtually non existent but yet it remains famous/popular expensive. Dare I say Champagne fits the same hat.
I'm always very weiry of wine guides, I used to use them but have given up. I never understand how they function. It is impossible to be objective and surely their tastes are not mine. Mr. Bettane mentions 'faults or defects' in wine. To me using industrial yeasts etc. kills wine, makes it loose it's fresh taste. Most of the time it ends up like these 'nice'cookies you buy in supermarkets they all have that weird taste to them and most of the time you won't finish a bottle. Now that is what I would call a defect.
Posted by: Mart | January 04, 2010 at 03:22 PM