Birthof a Brand

5 October 2007



Vin de Pays de l’Atlantique Debuts in Bordeaux and the World

For some reason, French wines still carry a certain mystique in some quarters. The truth is California, Australia, Chile and South Africa all produce wines of equal or greater quality, not to mention Italy and Spain. Many have caught on to this, which has resulted in declining sales for French vintners. In an effort to change the trend, the French government created a new umbrella label last year, “Atlantique,” and those wines debuted this week.

The Atlantique label covers Bordeaux and some of the surrounding country, an area that heretofore didn’t have a vin de pays. Bordeaux, until the governmental decree of last October, was purely appellation d’origine controlee [AOC]. That’s all well and good, but it means wine must be produced under very strict rules based largely on tradition and not on the cutting edge of oenological technology.

Pierre Cambar, head of the Vins d’Aquitaine authority, said, “The idea was to ask why shouldn’t Bordeaux and its region position itself on the market for vins de pays, or wines which are flexible, well-rounded, easy to drink and which are characterized mainly by their grape sort,” in short, like Calfornians. The solution was the Atlantique idea – keep the AOC and add to it a more flexible and sensible approach to winemaking.

The first of the 2006 harvest contains 67 reds, 22 roses and 15 whites from a total of 78 vineyards. The production for the year is about 4 million liters, or 1% of what Bordeaux produces of AOC wines. In Languedoc along the Mediterranean, vin de pays is well-established and accounts for 60% of the production there. In short, Atlantique has a great deal of room for growth.

Mr. Cambar, though, is being cautious about the future. “There is certainly more interest, which could point towards a rise. On the other hand, it's a small harvest overall, which means producers will have to make a trade off between what they keep for AOC and what they have for vins de pays ... If we get 50 to 60,000 hectoliters [5-6 million liters] I would be happy.”

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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