Grape expectations

Imagine you're a winemaker eager to make the best wine you can. First, though, you have to follow the rules:

- You may only make red wine.

- You can use only malbec, merlot, tannat and folle noire grapes.

- You can't irrigate your vines, even in a torrid summer like 2003.

- You can't produce more than 40 hectolitres of wine for each hectare of vineyard you own.

- Your wine must include at least 70 per cent malbec, and can have no more than 20 per cent merlot or tannat, and no more than 10 per cent folle noire.

- It must be at least 10.5 per cent alcohol by volume.

- You must prune your vines according to specific instructions.

- You must age your wine in barrels of designated size.

These are just some of the regulations that winemakers must follow in the Cahors appellation (designated wine region) in southwest France.

The Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) regulates the upper-tier of French wines. The restrictive system is based on the notion that terroir (the specific place and environment in which grapes grow) is all-important.

Wines grown in Cahors, according to the rules, can be labelled "Cahors." Bend the rules -- make a blend that's 35 per cent merlot and 65 per cent malbec, for example -- and you have to call it something else.

This stress on appellation was important when "Bordeaux," "Champagne" and "Burgundy" meant something -- even if it was the wrong thing -- to consumers around the world. But now, having lost market share to New World wines labelled by variety, the French wine industry is rethinking its approach.

How can producers of Cahors -- where the main grape is malbec -- compete with Argentinean malbec on the important British and American markets? If bottles of Cahors show the variety at all, it's in small print on the back label, because the front label must display "Cahors."

And while many wine-consumers know malbec (thanks to Argentina), hardly any know that a bottle of Cahors is made mainly (at least 70 per cent, remember!) from that very grape.

One month ago, the French government introduced a "Wine of France" category that will sit under the AOC in quality terms (although there will certainly be many wines in this new category of higher quality than many AOC wines). "Wines of France" wines will be labelled by grape variety, and there'll be no restrictions on where in France the grapes are grown.

All this is an attempt to win back lost market share. To that end, part of the French wine industry is trying to produce fruitier wines, the sort loved by most British and American consumers and the style expected to be popular in India and China, massive markets now targeted by the global wine industry.

Will it work? France will never regain its dominance because the global wine industry has changed. Still, labelling by variety and producing wine in a popular style may win it some additional sales.

Rod Phillips is co-author of The 500 Best-Value Wines in the LCBO. These columns are archived at www.rodphillipsonwine.com, where you can subscribe to his free electronic newsletters, Winepointer and Worlds of Wine. Comments or questions? Contact Rod at rod@rodphillipsonwine.com