New French wine label

MONTPELLIER (France) - IN THE sun-drenched south of France, the world's largest vineyard has launched a new, simplified brand called 'Pays d'Oc', creating the number one French wine export to compete against New World brands.

Languedoc-Roussillon covers 35 per cent (or 260,200 hectares) of all French vineyards, making it the biggest producer worldwide.

As of the 2009 vintage, soon to hit store shelves, one-third of that production or 760 million bottles of wine will be sold by vintage and grape variety under the Pays d'Oc brand. This will make them the world's fifth largest exporter of varietal wine. And with 33 grape varieties in production in the region, the market potential is impressive.

The new label, made possible by European Union reforms that received a green light in Aug 2009, allow the region's 2,700 vintners to label their wine for the first time with the grape variety, vintage and location, or Geographic Protected Indiation (PGI). This follows the marketing strategy of many of the world's most successful wines.

'Brussels wanted to compete with New World wines,' said Florence Barthes, managing director of the Pays d'Oc growers' association, this week at Vinisud, the Mediterranean wine trade show in Montpellier, which attracted 1,600 exhibitors and 33,000 visitors.

'It will help us a lot with the American market.' Foreign consumers are often confused by the multitude of French so-called AOC appellations that designate the geographical origins of agricultural products, and the complicated labels. -- AFP