California vs. France
Written by: Ryan Fujiu on Thursday, May 24 2007
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Today marks the 31st anniversary of the most important day in California wine history. Many regard the 1976 Judgment of Paris as the ‘tasting that changed the world.’ This was certainly true for the Napa Valley wineries that took home top honors, beating wines that were supposedly unbeatable.
There were two categories, Reds and Whites. Six California Cabernet Sauvignons were competing against four of the top reds from Bordeaux, including a 1970 Châteaux Haut-Brion and Mouton-Rothschild. And six California Chardonnays were competing against four of the top whites from Burgundy.
After the panel of eight French men and one French woman went through the blind tasting, they thought it was a landslide victory for France. But after the results were tallied, the French judges were shocked to discover that California came out on top in both categories.
This victory truly was the “shot heard round the world,” and raised California’s wine industry to a new level. The winning Cabernet was the 1973 Stags Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, and the winning Chardonnay was the 1973 Chateau Montelena.
Written by: Ryan Fujiu on Saturday, March 10 2007
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Recently, there has been a great deal of attention on winery marketing campaigns that engage their customers. Fantesca Winery unveiled their Wine Corkies and Twisted Oak is allowing their fans to Write this #x%x! Both wineries are encouraging participation in the winemaking process and are taking strides to break through the winery-consumer barrier.
However, there is a winery that has effectively broken down this barrier by taking an approach that has never been seen before. Many of you know him as the PinotBlogger, some of you know him as Josh, and everyone will soon know him as the front man and palate behind Capozzi Winery.
The concept of the PinotBlogger blog is to document the birth of the Capozzi Winery in Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley. On the surface, this seems like a novel approach to generate some pre-launch buzz. But the PinotBlogger has taken this approach into the stratosphere, as a bonafide star of the wine blogging community.
Some may argue that this isn’t the case. But I offer evidence to the contrary. In a January post, titled Help us Design our Tasting Room, the PinotBlogger asked for help from his friends, followers and fans to design the Capozzi Winery tasting room;
“We are starting the process of designing our tasting room and I’d love to get some feedback from you…If your idea is used we will commemorate it and be sure to give you credit. Perhaps a plaque if appropriate, or maybe we’ll build a shrine to your genius for all to see.”
What?!? I can help design a winery tasting room! Talk about being a part of the process. With 32 comments, it’s easy to see how well this was received by the wine blogging community. Some of the responses were 750 words +.
The interest and passion generated from this post is not only a sign that the PinotBlogger has nailed the mission of his blog, but also the he is on the verge of creating something no other winery has been able to do; a winery based community.
Regardless of whether the PinotBlogger decides to build a full fledged social network around the construction of Capozzi winery, he has built a community around his blog. It would be beneficial for everyone to be able to become more active in the process. Because the more people are involved, the more loyal they will be once Capozzi begins producing wine.
What winery wouldn’t want a group of highly passionate evangelists as customers? It’s an interesting approach and I’m excited to see the other interesting ways the PinotBlogger will get us all involved.
Written by: Ben Bicais on Friday, February 02 2007
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In response to increased competition from the New World and declining domestic consumption, France is changing its wine labeling rules. France will now allow blends of different Vins de Pays to be labeled, Vignobles de France.
The move comes in the wake of criticisms that French wine labels are very difficult to understand, especially by the export market. Many experts believe this is one of the reasons that New World regions have been chipping away at France’s market share in recent years. Ambitious French producers will now be able to make non-traditional blends under the Vignobles de France label.
“We are trying to link together the word ‘France,’ the name of a grape and the name of a brand on which a company can invest over the long term and earn some money,” said Michel Leguay, of Viniflhor, the board that made the decision.
But not everyone is supports the change. Jacques Gravegeal, President of the Union Producers of Vin de Pays d’Oc, said, “The ‘Vignobles de France’ will have the consequence of destroying the quality revolution that has taken place over 20 years in our region.” Others argue that the new designation dilutes the concept of terroir.
France’s new designation has opened a wider debate as to whether or not the country’s wine industry should work to appeal to international tastes, or adhere to tradition.
Written by: Ben Bicais on Wednesday, January 31 2007
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While California’s wine consumption is on the rise, the opposite seems to be happening in France. According to a recently released study per capita wine consumption in France continues to fall. Between 2001 and 2005, the average French citizen drank 11% less wine.
And there is no sign that this trend will slow anytime soon. By 2010, it is estimated that French wine consumption will drop another 7.84%. In contrast, worldwide consumption of wine is expected to increase by 9.4% over the same period.
Demand for wine is growing very quickly in the United States and Britain. At the current rate, America will overtake France as the largest wine consuming nation in the world by 2010.
As domestic consumption in France continues to drop, export markets are increasingly important to the nation’s wine industry. But there is fierce competition for these markets from New World wine regions including California, Australia, and Chile.
These countries employ many marketing and labeling tactics that are prohibited by the French AOC and Vin de Pays systems. For example, in most cases French wineries are not able to put the grape varietal on their labels, and must identify the wine by geographic region instead. This is confusing to many consumer, especially at mid to low-range price points.
Much of the wine France is currently producing goes unsold and ends up distilled by the European Union. Since 1988, the EU has also been paying struggling grape growers to pull their vines in a practice called “arrachage.” Over production is particularly a problem in Languedoc, but even Bordeaux is not immune.
To combat this glut, Plan Bordeaux was devised in 2005. It calls for 42,000 acres of vineyards to be uprooted in the region. But the plan has met resistance from growers, negociants, and government officials. It remains to be seen how well the French wine industry will adapt to the changing international market and the decrease in domestic consumption.
Written by: Ben Bicais on Thursday, November 16 2006
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I know that I have been a little tough on French wine lately, but there are things I admire about their industry. Despite all of its bureaucratic inefficiencies and generally anti-competitive behavior, the AOC still has merit. I certainly do not think that everything they are doing is bad; far from it. Of course the AOC could be improved, but California could definitely learn from France’s regulation of their best Appellations.
AOC laws for specific regions have hurt French innovation, but they also ensure at least some level of quality.
This is especially true in smaller, more specific Appellations like Pauillac, Cote Rotie, etc. California, on the other hand, does not limit yields and has no regulations on grape growing and winemaking practices in specific AVAs.
Negociants are increasingly buying the excess grapes and wine from vineyards in California’s elite AVAs that did not make the cut for the original grower or winery’s production. They buy these inferior grapes and wine at discount prices and then slap a premium AVA on the label. This clearly dilutes California’s notion of “place,” and I think that it is a real danger to the AVA system.
Written by: Ben Bicais on Wednesday, November 15 2006
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A few days ago, I wrote about, French Terroir vs. California Innovation: You Decide. After reviewing that post, I’d like to examine the French AOC system in a little more depth. While most of Europe and even some New World countries have modeled their wine governance systems on the AOC, it is fair to ask whether these laws actually help consumers, or if they merely give mediocre producers a safer framework to market their wines.
For a background on issues that the French AOC system is currently facing, I suggest reading Alder Yarrow’s A Good Overview of France’s Problem and the that article he refers to.
To begin, it is important to look at why the French AOC system was created in the first place. Some of France’s best wine producers were worried that lesser producers were diluting the value of famous wine growing regions. Before the AOC, a producer in Burgundy could buy some Grenache from the Rhone Valley and blend it with his Pinot Noir in an unripe year. He could then label the wine as if the grapes were entirely from his part of Burgundy.
Needless to say, premium quality producers were furious that this was happening. So they lobbied for laws that would protect the terroir. The AOC system emerged out of these efforts, and now regulates not only the varietal type and geographical source of grapes, but also yields, vineyard management decisions, winemaking practices, and other factors that affect quality.
The AOC was originally intended to protect France’s best wine producers; and ironically, it has done more for the worst.
The problem is that AOC laws foster anti-competitive behavior. After all, if a “Bourgogne” label carries enough prestige to sell a wine on its own, there is little impetus for improvement. And this was the case for many years. That is, until a couple of decades ago when France and other European countries began to lose their stranglehold on the export market.
Producers from California, Australia, Chile, and other New World wine regions began to chip away at Europe’s dominance for a variety of reasons. One was that they were free to label their wines based on the grape varietal, which is illegal under the AOC. The consumer no longer had to be a geography expert to select a decent wine. It’s telling that New World wine regions gave many consumers what they were looking for by catering to their tastes; not abiding by the laws of an out-dated bureaucracy.
Written by: Ben Bicais on Monday, November 13 2006
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There is a great deal of controversy over the validity of the French concept of terroir in California. For those of you who don’t know, terroir is the physical, chemical, and social factors that affect a piece of land and the wine that it produces.
Physical and chemical factors (climate and soil) have a strong influence on the resulting wine; and in France, the social aspect (customs and laws) also plays a major role. On the other hand, the California wine industry is not constrained by these social forces.
The difference arises from the laws of the French AOC system. These laws govern everything from the varietals that can be planted, to trellis systems, to grape yields per hectare. The famous French vineyard, Le Montrachet, is required by law to plant Chardonnay and use specified viticultural and vinification techniques.
There are no such laws in California. California’s vineyard owners are free to decide for themselves which grapes are best for their land. This freedom allows for innovation and enabled the development of the New World wine style.
If California’s wine industry were subject the laws of the French AOC system, some of the best wines in the world would have never been produced.
Napa Valley is widely recognized for its Cabernet Sauvignon and other Bordeaux varietals. Under the AOC system, all vineyards in the Napa Valley would be required to plant these certain grapes, and for the most part the results would be great. However, one of the best wines from California, Mount Veeder’s Jade Mountain, Paras Vineyard Syrah would have never been produced.
Although there are benefits to the customs and laws of French terroir, it suffocates innovation and experimentation. It is up to you to decide which philosophy you prefer.
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Today’s the 31st Anniversary of the Most Important Tasting in California’s History 
