” Le vin noble: essai agronomique – Réflexions autour de son élaboration et de la production de Vin Naturel – Réflexions sur l’orientation de la production du “Vin Noble” et son état-civil “
The adjective noble can be accepted in two ways when applied to wine. In one, just as a noble man belongs to a distinguished or privileged class in the state, by right of birth, noble by extraction, a wine can be noble by its origin. In the other, figuratively speaking, a noble person is one who is eminent, full of grandeur and elegance, raised above others. These two meanings are found in the noun noblesse, whether it designates the quality of those elevated above commoners by letters from the prince, or whether it depends on the person and not the ancestors, with elevation, dignity, virtues and elegance. Applied to wines, these two terms correspond to the nobility of the origi/le, on the one hand, and on the other, to the i/ltri/lsèque /loblesse that emanates from their very substance. Both are distinguished in this memoir. It should be pointed out, however, that this analysis, carried out from France, is exhaustive only in terms of principles.
I – THE INTRINSIC NOBILITY OF WINES
The notions of greatness, dignity and virtue are meaningless when it comes to wine, which can only be judged by the pleasure it gives the drinker. Admittedly, this is a subjective factor, but no one finds a wine that is neither fine nor delicate pleasant, and no one derives satisfaction from a wine that provides only coarse, vulgar sensations. A wine’s finesse is the first condition for its enjoyment, and hence its nobility. In fact, the natural phenomenon of alcoholic fermentation, and the human interventions that accompany and follow it during the maturing and preservation of wine, have the grape must as their starting point.
The thousands of vine varieties known and preserved today, in cultivation or in collections, bear different grapes and produce wines that can be very different from one another; the variety, or cépage, as it is commonly called in French, is at the beginning of the analysis of agronomic factors in wine production. Now, in every variety, the directly apparent characteristics, and consequently those of the wine, are controlled by two kinds of factors.
1 – Genetic inheritance determines the constant characteristics of each grape variety; it is thanks to genetic factors that Cabernet Sauvignon, for example, remains identical to itself and perfectly identifiable, from one continent to another and whatever the latitude.
2 – The causes of fluctuation act on the vines, the stocks, the innumerable examples of the most widely cultivated grape varieties; they include, along with the effects of climate and soil, the consequences of cultivation practices (pruning in particular). They also include oenological practices relating to harvesting, musts and wines.
These two areas are independent: no cause of fluctuation can modify a given grape variety, and no two grape varieties can produce the same product, even when they are subject to the same influences. The guiding principle of agronomic analysis of the intrinsic nobility of wines is therefore unambiguous: it includes both genetic inheritance and the causes of fluctuation, which must be considered in this natural order.
GENETIC HERITAGE: THE CEPAGE
The considerable differences between wines of different varieties can be seen by analysis and tasting. The physico-chemical characteristics of wines, principally alcohol content and acidity, are derived from the sugars and acids contained in the must. Based on these data, wines can be classified as alcoholic and acidic vins de garde (suitable for ageing), alcoholic and low-acid wines suitable for the production of generous wines – which together comprise most of the noble wines – table wines (to be drunk young) and wines suitable for the production of eaux-de-vie because they are low in alcohol and high in acidity.
Grape varieties are classified according to their genetic heritage: Chardonnay, Aramon, Grenache and Folle blanche.
Flavor and fragrance are also genetic properties. Single-flavored varieties, aromatic varieties (e.g. Sauvignon), musky varieties, correspond to obvious differences, with an infinite number of nuances within each group. Analysis is still a long way from complete mastery of this problem. Between the fine varieties, which some say are noble (Pinot, Chardonnay, Rhenish Riesling, etc.) and the coarser ones (Aramon, Terrets, Durif and even Folle blanche), there is an intermediate class (Ugni blanc = Trébiano, Gamay, Carignan, etc.). The properties of the varieties are now well enough known in these three directions not to escape the notice of experts. They allow us to establish a grid in which ampelographers and geneticists place the new varieties created by crossing.
CAUSES OF FLUCTUATION
When they act on specimens (stocks, vines) of a given grape variety, their main effect is to influence the sugar content of musts and the alcohol content of wines.
Other constituents vary at the same time, either in the same direction (color, bouquet appeal), or in the opposite direction (acidity). As the finesse of a grape variety’s wines gradually disappears as the alcoholic strength decreases, the factors contributing to the nobility of the wines can be assessed according to their effects on the sugar content of the musts. The problem, which is by no means simple, can now be tackled in an elementary manner.
Stump vigour
Sugars are synthesized in the light from C02 in the air, and are more abundant the larger the leaf surface. They take several directions during ripening. Some are used by respiration and dispersed into the atmosphere as C02. The other part is deposited simultaneously and in parallel as sugar in the berries and as starch in the perennial parts (roots, stems and arms, shoots). The amount deposited in the berries is greater the smaller the amount lost during respiration. This is the case with weak vines, which have ceased all shoot growth during ripening and whose rather light-green foliage is well exposed to the sun; on the contrary, in vigorous vines, with abundant, bushy, very green foliage, sugar metabolism (respiration) remains active enough to significantly reduce the amount of sugars deposited in the berries.
Performance
Berry sugar content is a proportion. For a total mass of sugars deposited in the berries, this proportion – the alcoholic strength of the wine – is all the higher the smaller the number of berries, or their volume, i.e. the lower the yield per vine. It’s almost a question of dilution. Finally, the relationship between the alcoholic content of wines, and consequently their finesse and nobility, and the state of the vines can be seen in a relatively simple diagram. At one extreme, which is the case most favorable to wine nobility, the vines are weak, with little foliage, relatively light in color, well exposed to the sun, each bearing a small number of bunches. At the other extreme, the most unfavorable case, the stumps are powerful and vigorous, with dark green, well-developed, bushy foliage, sometimes still growing during ripening, and with a high cluster load (yield).
It’s certainly tempting to imagine plants with highly-developed foliage and low metabolism as being best suited to high sugar production, compatible with high yields; but that’s just wishful thinking: such foliage can’t be built up without active growth that requires intense metabolism, which is always detrimental during ripening.
CLIMATE AND WINE FINESSE
The two climatic criteria usually used are the average air temperature and the duration of daylight – the sunrise-sunset interval – observed daily during the active life period (when the vine has leaves), on the one hand, and the air temperature during ripening, on the other.
Air temperature and light duration
Conventionally taken as a measure of the energy reaching the soil, they are considered in relation to the grape variety grown, its specific climatic requirements, in other words, its earliness. When local climatic conditions meet the grape variety’s requirements, ripening is perfect, but when they are insufficient, the berries do not fully ripen. This affects the quality and finesse of the wine: On the one hand, the soluble constituents of the harvest are unable to reach the most favorable stage of their biological evolution, as in the case of tannins, whose progressive polymerization is halted, thus accentuating astringency; on the other hand, instead of becoming succulent and presenting themselves as envelopes full of liquid, incompletely ripe berries remain firm and crunchy, retaining, in the pulp, cells with intact walls and abundant protoplasm, all materials which impart to the wine, even when vinification is carried out in white, herbaceous tastes, always coarse, and an unpleasant odor. Obtaining fine or noble wines therefore requires exact adaptation of the climatic requirements of grape varieties to local possibilities. It is not possible to grow grape varieties too late for the production of noble wines.
Temperature during wine maturation
It determines the sugar/acid balance of the must (alcohol/acid balance of the wine) because it influences plant respiration and membrane permeability: musts are sweeter and less acidic when it’s high, whereas in cold weather, they’re more acidic and less sweet. Taken TOGETHER, these data guide the choice of grape variety in a given location, the nature of production (e.g. vin de garde, vin généreux) and establish differences, sometimes considerable, between vintages; they lead to a clear distinction between wines produced at high latitudes (low alcohol and acid) and those produced in warmer climates (high alcohol and low acid). A vocation for climates is therefore evident.
SOIL AND WINE FINESSE
Several mechanisms are involved in this relationship:
The climatic influence of soil
This is the platform on which the layer of air surrounding the vine’s foliage rests; it’s the air temperature that needs to be considered. In summer and during grape ripening, it’s warmer at ground level; the average air temperature decreases with height, and the differences are significant. This fact imposes a management style that keeps the foliage as close to the ground as possible, condemning high-stemmed systems for the production of fine wines. At the same time, the properties of the soil surface come into play. Average air temperature is higher on dry, stony soils. It is also related to soil color. Spatial layout, characterized by slope and orientation – the two elements of exposure – can also determine significant differences. Together, these factors affect the average temperature of the air surrounding the foliage; their action modifies the general climatic factors to create, at the same latitude, local situations that are more favorable than others to the production of fine wines.
Water and nitrogen
Taken into the soil, they reduce the alcohol content and finesse of wines above a certain level. Growth-promoting, their absorption makes vines more vigorous, increases the metabolized fraction of synthesized materials and reduces the quantity of sugars deposited in the berries. Fineness is also adversely affected, as mentioned above, by the persistence of cell walls and protoplasm in the pulp of ripe berries: the substances released into the wine are unpleasant to taste and smell, and it cannot be ruled out that undesirable synthesized substances may become perceptible in the wine of vigorous, intensely metabolized vines. Nitrogen uptake depends not only on the soil’s N content, but also on the proportion of fine soil, excluding pebbles and gravels; together, they determine the N resources of the layer colonized by the roots. Deep, homogeneous soils (free of stones and gravel) with a high N content are unsuitable for the production of noble wines.
Water absorption, as it relates to vine vigor, depends on the physical structure of the soil, its capacity for water, rainfall patterns, evaporation and transpiration, and is directly affected by climatic conditions. The action of water and nitrogen has an almost direct effect on the alcoholic strength and other characteristics of the wine, which vary with the degree. Naturally high alcohol levels, to which nobility is subordinate, cannot be obtained in cool, deep soils (with high nitrogen resources), such as those found in plains and valley bottoms; they require poor soils, subject to drying out – without excess – during the ripening period; these are generally heterogeneous soils, sometimes with steep slopes.
Other absorbed minerals
Major cations (calcium, potassium, magnesium) and minor elements (or trace elements), each act in a specific way on one or more of the plant’s physiological functions and, consequently, on the synthesis of wine constituents which, in very large numbers, are the elements of flavor and bouquet. The spectrum of cations absorbed depends, in particular, on the nature and concentration of the mineral elements present in the soil solution, whose composition is directly related to the mineralogical species making up the solid particles. The constituents of the wine, and therefore its finesse, are thus linked to the heavy minerals and clays that characterize each geological formation, which is an important, if not decisive, factor in the originality of wines.
Relationship between soil and grape variety
As each grape variety has its own particular physiological functions and constituents, the wine is only at its most enjoyable when its constituents are in the right proportions. Consequently, the characteristics of a grape variety only flourish when it is established in soils of a given mineralogical composition, in relation to the geological formation(s) of a more or less vast area. The same grape variety can produce good wines in other soils, but they differ in flavor, bouquet and nobility. There are several examples of fine grape varieties whose wines lose all their nobility in certain soils, without these soils significantly altering their vigor.
CULTIVATION PRACTICES AND WINE FINESSE
The finesse and nobility of our wines is influenced by the way in which they are cultivated; the practices that play the greatest role are described here.
Planting density
The number of vines per unit area is an important factor in vine vigour: vigour decreases as density increases, because the soil’s resources of useful materials (water and nitrogen) are shared between a greater number of root systems. High-density vines have the potential to produce the sweetest musts and the most alcoholic, least acidic and finest wines; as planting density decreases, vigour increases, degree falls, acidity rises and finesse is lost.
The layout: planting
The layout of the plantations (in squares, rows, etc.) only slightly modifies the vigor of the stumps, but it can influence the sunlight of the foliage and thus have a more or less favorable effect on the finesse of the wines.
Size
Pruning comes into play in several ways:
It determines the number of eyes, or charge, borne by the stock after the operation and, consequently, the number of leafy shoots, the number of bunches, and the yield per vine.
The finest wines are obtained with low yields, and therefore with a small number of eyes left after pruning.
It influences the layout of the foliage, on the one hand by its arrangement in space, which corresponds to more or less good sunshine for all the leaves, and on the other hand by its altitude above the ground: the sweetest musts are obtained from vines whose leaves, regularly arranged and well exposed to the sun, are located as close as possible to the ground, where the temperature is highest in summer and during ripening.
It acts on vigour through the length given to the stem and arms: lengthening reduces vigour and favours the sweetest musts.
We reconcile proximity to the soil with lengthening the stem by inclining it at an angle that becomes more acute with age (length): this is the “traîne” method, which has been used in many French vineyards producing noble wines.
Fertilization
Fertilization plays a role that can be seen through that of nitrogen, since this mineral is the only one that exerts an action favorable to vigor and unfavorable to wine finesse. The other minerals have no equivalent effect; consequently, obtaining noble wines requires the abandonment of nitrogenous fertilizers, whatever their form, or at least a very wise moderation in their use.
Irrigation
Irrigation has negative effects on alcohol content and wine finesse. To sum up, vines suitable for producing noble wines are planted at high density, with low, long-armed stumps, lightly loaded, with shoots close to the ground, well detached and well lit, receiving little or no nitrogen and not irrigated.
Rootstocks
Rootstocks play a role in the two areas to which the soil-related constituents of wine belong.
Rootstocks are more or less powerful, and impart more or less vigor to the graft they carry: their action on the vigor of the graft is therefore added to that of the soil, in fact to that of water and nitrogen.
Powerful rootstocks (rupestris du Lot, 110 R, S04, etc.) have an unfavorable effect on the finesse and nobility of the wine.
The soil’s relationship with the wine’s constituents, other than alcohol and acidity, is established through the rootstock, whose roots are substituted for those of the graft; the spectrum of ions delivered by the rootstocks is therefore not that which would characterize direct absorption by the graft’s roots.
In fact, changes in the mineral supply to the graft have only been observed in extreme cases, with Fe, Mg, for example, although this does not mean that rootstocks have no influence on the flavour and bouquet of wines.
But until now, it has not been perceived, and it is the strength of the rootstocks that is held to be the most active factor on the finesse and nobility of wines.
II – OENOLOGICAL PRACTICES
At the end of the production chain, first on the grapes and then on the wine, oenological practices fall into two categories:
Handling operations such as harvesting, transport, de-stemming, maceration of the solid parts, pressing, fermentation and maturing of the wine, can be carried out with the sole aim of enhancing the characteristics of the harvest.
Properly chosen and carried out, they should enhance the nobility of the wine.
The addition of exogenous substances has a completely different scope.
The most important, of course, is chaptalization, which raises the alcohol content above the natural level.
In this case, the finesse of the wine is little different from that which would have corresponded to the natural sugar content of the harvest, rather than that suggested by the degree of the wine produced after chaptalization.
In an extreme case, a low-sugar grape harvest chaptalized to produce a high-degree wine can only result in a coarse, vulgar product.
The addition of alcohol during or after fermentation can be compared to these effects.
The finesse of the finished wine depends on the finesse imparted by the original harvest.
These practices, as well as chemical de-acidification, are contrary to the production of noble wines, and have remained unknown to viticulture for many centuries.
Intermediate conclusion
Alcohol content, and that of the components that vary with it, are associated with wine finesse. They depend on classic factors: grape varieties, climate (light and heat), soil (nitrogen and water), growing practices. The other constituents, responsible for flavor and bouquet, are formed by the grape variety and influenced by the soil (mineralogical composition and geological origin); they are responsible for the wines’ originality. Noble wines have both finesse and originality.
III – WINE NOBILITY OF ORIGIN
Evoking the noble origins of wines leads us to question the birth of vineyards and their evolution.
ORIGIN OF VINES GROWN
Grapevines existed in the Tertiary period, before the presence of man on the planet. In Europe, Asia and Africa, they belonged to the Vitis Villifém L. species, as is still the case today for all noble grape varieties. Natural stands were established and maintained by the sowing of seeds carried by birds in their dormitories and elsewhere. The original heritage was impoverished over the geological ages by the effects of glaciations and, during the historical period, by land clearance and, to a certain extent, human selection. However, wild vines coexisted with cultivated vines until the 19th century, when highly active parasites such as powdery mildew, phylloxera and downy mildew were introduced into Europe from the United States.
The last traces of the primitive flora were observed in the Rhine valley (Ch. OBERLIN, 1880), in North Africa (TRABUT 1889) and again in France in the Pyrenean valleys (CLAVERIE 1949). But the most extensive studies have been carried out in the Neretva valley in Yugoslavia (TURKOVIC, 1954), and above all in the U.S.S.R. with A.M. NEGROUL (1956). These studies gave us a good idea of the conditions in which natural stands existed, their relationship with cultivated grape varieties and, in some cases, their exploitation by man in situations where the absence or low activity of parasites introduced from America enabled them to survive.
It is well known that vines colonize the banks of watercourses and the vicinity of rocks and stones, where seedlings find sufficient moisture and light. When they come into contact with a tree or shrub, they climb up with it, clinging to it by their tendrils but not climbing the trunks. The foliage is mixed with that of the support, but stands in the light at the top of the foliage. In the absence of support, the vine spreads out in bushes and can form curtains on cliff faces. In these conditions, in the absence of pruning, the branches remain short, the leaves are small, the clusters loose and the berries few. In almost contemporary conditions, these wild vines constitute a food resource; they are harvested in the Neretva valley, as in Soviet Asia (from the western Kopet/Dag to Tian Chan), and transported by animals for consumption, drying or even vinification (when wine is a permitted beverage).
At the same time, cultivation is carried out with cuttings, or separate marcottes, at a distance from the natural stands; but the vines thus formed can be abandoned, returning to a wild state. The resemblance between the natural stands that have been studied and the grape varieties currently cultivated has long been noted: Rhine valley vines with Pinot, Neretva vines with Kadarka, Klatina, Tian-Chan vines with varieties cultivated before Islam, etc. There is no doubt that the grape varieties currently cultivated were taken from wild flora as long ago as the Middle Ages.
CULTIVATION
The first occupants of what is now France therefore knew the vine, picked its bunches, and also acquired a knowledge of wine, according to evidence gathered through the accumulation of seeds at certain prehistoric sites. Domestication, which was achieved by planting and tending vine shoots taken from the surrounding area, could only have been carried out by sedentary people; vines were not among the first plants to be cultivated during the slow and difficult transition from hunting to farming. By the dawn of history, cultivation had long been practised by the Gauls, Ligurians, Iberians and other peoples, and probably by the Neolithic populations that preceded them. The same has been true, in more or less remote times, in all territories populated by wild vines.
The viticulture of independent Gaul has left no historical evidence, but it could not have been of great importance, since the satisfaction of food needs, through agriculture and hunting, left very little room for a non-essential crop, and very little time to give it the attentive care without which it ceases to produce. This is not to say, however, that the colonizing peoples, mainly the Greeks, should be credited with having introduced vine cultivation, varieties or processes to Gaul; after all, the Gauls were coopers.
GALLO-ROMAN VINEYARDS
The peace necessary for vine cultivation was brought about by the Roman conquest; its expansion was continuous, barely thwarted by the grubbing-up ordered by Domitian in 92 and reported only in the 3rd century, the reasons for which would have been the threat to Italian wines posed by production in the provinces, and also fears for Rome’s supplies following the reduction in sowings. Gallo-Roman vineyards continued to develop and prosper until the 3rd century, but the historical data concerning them is incomplete and often distorted by the chroniclers and naturalists of the time, who were not specialists and who referred everything to Italy, Greece and the Orient. It was, however, a Gallic vineyard, that of the estates and that of the free towns; the former oriented mainly towards marketing and export, the latter towards self-consumption; reinforced by Rome’s tax base and by the land register drawn up in the 1st century, this agrarian structure did not change in the Late Empire or in the Middle Ages.
It was consolidated in the 3rd century, when the powerful gave up living in the towns to retire to their villas, and the tendency towards self-sufficiency could be reinforced, with commercial viticulture predominating when the geographical situation favored it. What characterizes Gallo-Roman vineyards, however, is the commercial orientation they were given very early on along the Mediterranean coastline, and the winegrowing landscape of the Narbonnaise region, with its multitude of settlements, was durably shaped by this; this particularity, which is not found in other French vineyards, contributes, along with other reasons that have since emerged, to making today’s vineyards in the South of France a special case. The devastating onslaughts of the Barbarians ruined Gallo-Roman viticulture as early as the 3rd century, and completely by the 5th; but because they were not burnt as harvests, and were only deprived of care (pruning), the vines survived; at worst, they became enslaved. No doubt the crop was not abandoned everywhere, nor all the time, but it was neglected by the Germans, Alans and Franks, after the Gallo-Roman owners were ousted in the 5th century. Unable to produce on a regular basis, it nevertheless held on well enough to nurture a taste for wine among the Germans, and to allow the start of a new vineyard.
FEODALITE – THE FIRST STEPS OF NOBLE WINES
The ruin of winegrowing was not complete, as can be seen from the maritime relations that were not interrupted until the 9th century; its rebirth occurred within feudal society, among both the great and the religious. The grandees made it a rule to offer wine to their guests and took pride in its quality, with the feeling, perhaps inspired by the fascination still exerted by the ancient world, that every man of status had a duty to own vines, make wine and offer it.
The Catholic hierarchy is no different, both in episcopal sees and in religious communities, finding justification for a certain profane side in the rules that impose wine in church services and prescribe it in food with bread. The Church played a very important role in the development and perfection of vine-growing: inalienable, unassailable and constantly enlarged, its landholdings were open to all experiments, under the authority of cultivated men; moreover, during the 9th and 10th centuries, among the darkest in French history, the Church was the only moral and organized force.
The features of this early medieval viticulture were shaped by the severe constraints of the time and, in particular, by the risk of food shortages, which led to a preference for essential cereals, reserving for them the most productive soils and those easiest to work with the primitive implements of the time. Vines were planted on the least fertile soils, which were recognized for their ability to produce the best wines. At the end of the 6th century, Venance FORTUNAT, the Holy Bishop of Poitiers, describing the imposing estate of the bishop of Trier, ANICET, who was an Aquitanian, reports that vines had been planted there on barren hillsides, which had previously borne nothing but scrub, and that they yielded a generous juice. The fundamental principle that vines planted in the least fertile soils produce the best wines, in fact the noblest, was therefore known in France fifteen centuries ago, well before the year 1000. And the other essential facts were not ignored: dedicated to self-consumption, vine-growing was geared towards the pleasure of the vineyard owner, through a constant search for the most favorable locations, varieties and practices for wine quality and finesse.
The members of this craft are able to appreciate the quality of wine and relate it to the location of the vines that produce it, as well as to the practices of cultivation and vinification, because they are constantly in contact with the vines, presses and barrels. The ability to judge vines and wines simultaneously stems from the ease of comparison within a relatively narrow field of observation: the person who drinks the wine can see the vineyard that produces it, and the characteristics of the latter are explained by what the former shows. There are many reasons to believe that this period in French history saw the first phase in the nobility of origin of wines. Admittedly, not all the locations chosen for the establishment of the first vineyards were always the most favorable, and they sometimes imposed themselves for lack of anything better, even when it came to choosing varieties. But the quest for quality was a constant concern, despite the sacrifices and pains it demanded: this is how the monks of Pontivy (Yonne) drew their wine from the vines of Chablis, 20 km away, entrusted to them by the monks of Saint Martin-de-Tours, as early as the 9th century (R. DION).
What mattered was the wine, the inevitable comparisons to which it gave rise, and finally the renown it could acquire, sometimes far from the place of its production, wherever those who had had the opportunity to drink it could make their feelings known. We can therefore guess at the circumstances surrounding the birth of noble wines in France: on the one hand, the creation of vineyards in the agronomic conditions required by the intrinsic nobility of the wine, and on the other, the fame they could acquire, a condition of the nobility of origin.
COMMERCIAL VITICULTURE
With the rise of cities and the fragmentation of feudal estates, followed by the regrouping of landholdings for the benefit of opulent bourgeois and wealthy peasants, winegrowing changed hands as well as spirit, with the contribution of the virtues of economy and organization ignored in feudal society. From the 11th century onwards, it turned to trade, starting a trend that would never stop: wine shipping developed in response to the interest shown in cities and abroad, in Flanders, England and even further afield. Viticulture received a strong boost, expanding at the expense of other crops through new plantations created by commercial demand, for which they were established near towns, waterways and ports, and by the taste for wine that gave rise to a need in even the smallest settlements: a commercial viticulture and a village viticulture were thus created.
This village viticulture finds favorable sites already occupied and settles where it can, close to dwellings in general; and the force that animates it will make it appear everywhere, even where the vine only ripens miserably, but it arrives too late, with too few means and its fate is sealed: to it the mediocre situations, to it the exhausting imitation of feudal viticulture, to it to show little difficulty about the wine it produces. These characteristics will never fade; witness today the classification established in 1855 between the crus of the Médoc (Bordeaux): at the top, the “classified” crus (five classes), then the “bourgeois” crus (two classes) and at the bottom, the “artisan and peasant” crus. There’s no better illustration of the millennia-old rigidity of French viticulture, which some critics are quick to criticize, but which, with its original agronomic foundations, we must remember is full of rigor.
Commercial viticulture has left many traces; it’s the one that has caught the attention of commentators and historians inclined to neglect everything that preceded it, somewhat because it seemed more distinguished and less servile, and, above all, because it’s easier to penetrate than the art of the winegrower. The idea that viticulture is essentially a commercial matter has thus been fortified to the point of prevailing, even though it distorts social reality, since the aim of commerce is different, and sometimes even far removed, from the fundamental objective of vine cultivation, which is the satisfaction of man’s taste for wine. In France, the commercial orientation became even more pronounced under the Ancien Régime, with the fragmentation of seigneurial estates and the strengthening of bourgeois ownership; the viticulture of large estates and village viticulture continued to be the two agrarian aspects of French viticulture after the abolition of feudal rights and the sale of national property by the Revolution and the Empire.
NOBILITY OF ORIGIN AND COMMERCIAL VITICULTURE
Primitive or self-consumption viticulture was aimed at satisfying the needs and tastes of the person bringing in the grapes and making the wine to drink. Oriented towards obtaining a quality wine, it was driven by the search for methods to improve the wine’s pleasantness. Commercial viticulture, practised by those who produce wine to sell it, was – and still is – aimed at making a profit, which it seeks to increase by appropriate methods. Commercial viticulture relates the characteristics and enjoyment of wine directly to the varieties, location and care of the vines, and to oenological practices. All modifications to these production conditions have an effect on the wine; producers – consumers – evaluate them and implement, to their satisfaction, the practices most favorable to the finesse of the wine, and to its quality in general.
This is no longer the case in commercial viticulture, since the person who receives the wine to drink does not know the conditions under which it was produced. He can neither verify what he is told, nor relate it to the wine’s characteristics. The methods are therefore different. Whereas the former relies on the art of the winegrower to obtain the best wine by making multiple comparisons in time and space, confronting ordinary vicissitudes and exceptional events, commercial viticulture confines itself to bending these practices to increase productivity, with no consideration for consumer satisfaction and no limit other than the buyer’s disaffection.
Generally speaking, the former maintains weak vines, established in less fertile soils, with a large number of vines per hectare, pruned short, with little smoke and no irrigation; it can thus obtain fine wines with a sufficient natural alcoholic content. Commercial viticulture, on the other hand, prunes long, vigorous vines, with a small number of vines per hectare, in fertile soils of plains or valleys, smoked and irrigated, with naturally low-alcohol wines that remain coarse. The nobility of origin is attached to transparent viticulture, and demands, along with historical antiquity, the permanence of production sites, varieties used, cultivation methods and oenological processes. It must be able to provide irrefutable proof of this, and it’s worth pointing out that producers of noble wines place the honor of the wine above profit.
LOSS OF WINE’S INTRINSIC NOBILITY
Many causes and events have intervened to more or less pervert the production of noble wines.
The end of empiricism and the betrayal of clerics
The end of empiricism and the betrayal of the clergy were most effective. It is clear that the methods used to establish vineyards from the Middle Ages onwards, and for many centuries afterwards, were based solely on oral tradition. As improvements were the result of comparisons made in vineyards and cellars, changes could only be made very slowly. For a long time, books on agriculture and viticulture were confined to describing empirical practices, which had no bearing on the conditions under which noble wines were produced. The situation changed significantly during the 19th century, with, for example, the three volumes in which Doctor Jules GUYOT reports on the mission entrusted to him under the Second Empire. In addition to a remarkable description of French vineyards – as yet ungrafted – the author added comments and proposals, including the long Guyot pruning method, which seem to have made him the first champion of productivity.
The sometimes singular characteristics of the vineyard management methods used in France’s many vineyards were assessed solely on the basis of their economic characteristics, which led to the condemnation of practices that were entirely justified in terms of obtaining fine wines. Professor Louis RAVAZ was the first scientist to seek this justification with rational data, at the beginning of the 20th century. After him, the clerics formed two groups: one, a very small minority, which can be understood as the “winemakers”, continued along the path he had mapped out, contributing to the maintenance of noble wines. The other group, that of the “economists”, adopted Dr. GUYOT’s ideas and forgot, sometimes completely, that vines are cultivated for wine before for profit; and a great many authors of popularization works espoused the same cause, which fortunately did not rally all growers.
This intellectual abandonment of the production of fine wines can only inspire regret, sadness and bitterness; unfortunately, it has served to justify the most questionable of producers’ actions and the decisions of those in power, or their passivity.
Progress in material equipment
Progress in equipment has been one of the most important causes of evolution for almost two centuries. At first rudimentary, then perfected and adapted to each vineyard, hand tools remained in use for millennia. The adoption of harnessed implements (ploughs, etc.) at the beginning of the 19th century, followed by the introduction of motorized equipment at the beginning of the 20th century, led to changes, some of them profound, in the farming methods that had been used in the past.
were slowly developed for the production of fine wines. Tractor and carriage traffic required the alignment of stumps, a reduction in planting density and a modification of the pruning system, all of which diminished the ability to produce fine wines. If this evolution is in the direction of history, it is clear today that it was carried out indiscriminately, guided solely by the need to reduce labor costs.
The mechanization of farming operations could have been achieved by giving priority to the nobility of the wine. In some cases, however (e.g. Médoc), traditional methods were only slightly modified, so there were solutions. But in general, the project managers were unaware of this. It should also be remembered that this process began in vineyards producing common wines for blending, where no questions of quality were asked. Fine wine producers followed suit with a guilty naiveté, albeit with their own peculiarities and, at times, a degree of restraint. One of the most pernicious effects has been the gradual disappearance of the viticultural craftsmanship that had been the strength of historic viticulture; manual workers capable of intelligently making the necessary choices at any given moment have not been replaced by machines.
Finally, systematically sought-after and encouraged by its own specialists and by industrialists, the mechanization of cultivation – and oenological – operations has given rise to a profusion of more or less expensive machinery, the corollary of which has been the indebtedness of producers: the quest for profit has become even more imperative. What has become of the production of noble wines?
Increased yield
Yield increases have been achieved by all available means; the extension of the most productive grape varieties, which are not the most noble, and the adoption of long pruning have been implemented in the majority of cases, combined with fertilization and sometimes irrigation. The use of fertilizers has increased considerably, even in vineyards considered to produce the best wines. Nitrogen inputs, sometimes very high, have increased vine vigour and boosted yields, with negative effects on wine quality; soils are now durably enriched due to the persistence of nitrogen effects: by ceasing inputs, the conditions for quality production cannot be immediately restored. Irrigation is little different; it can have explosive effects when combined with nitrogen fertilization.
Chaptalization
Chaptalization has become an indispensable corrective to ensure that the alcoholic content of wines made from productive grape varieties, pruned long, fertilized, sometimes irrigated, and planted at low density, is sufficient. Without chaptalization and other enrichment processes (concentrated musts, alcohol), yield increases would have been less significant and wine quality would have been less affected.
The phylloxera invasion
The phylloxera invasion, which destroyed the historic vineyards in the last quarter of the 19th century, meant that new vines had to be planted by grafting onto phylloxera-resistant American vines; But while few of the old practices had to be abandoned – such as provignage – and in most cases nothing stood in the way of the reconstitution of an old-fashioned vineyard, entirely dedicated to the production of the finest wines, this renewal was the occasion for changes in vine location, grape varieties, planting density and pruning system, all of which were unfortunately motivated by the need to increase yields through the use of chaptalization.
Growing direct-producer hybrids
The cultivation of direct-producer hybrids has seriously threatened the existence of historic vineyards. Justified by the partial resistance of these grape varieties to mildew, which was poorly controlled at the time, it was in fact motivated by profitability; hybrid wines were far removed from noble wines by their coarse characteristics and often strange taste. Despite these serious drawbacks, a school of thought – supported by the plant trade – devoted itself to the study and extension of these new grape varieties; it was favored by the critical economic situation of fine wine producers, and vineyards found themselves seriously polluted by hybrids. This problem is one of the most important that French viticulture had to face in the first half of the 20th century.
Distillation
Distillation played a considerable role in the regions where it was developed, such as Languedoc. Improvements in stills in the early 19th century brought distillation to an industrial scale in Languedoc, where by 1850 almost all of the 800,000 hl of alcohol consumed in France had been distilled. Distillation was the only outlet for the majority of producers, who obtained the best economic results with the highest alcohol yields and, consequently, the highest wine yields; wine quality was not sought after, as it had no influence on the price of eau-de-vie, whose characteristics did not reproduce those of wine. Producers of wines for distillation (known as “boilers”) are not required to produce fine, original wines; these are features common to all brandy-producing vineyards, in France and the rest of the world. The development of alcohol production and trade, based on the price per degree-hectoliter of wine, has greatly contributed to the elimination of any remaining fine wine production in Languedoc.
Cutting
Blending played the same role as distillation in the disappearance of the region’s noble wines. Around 1854, when powdery mildew severely reduced French harvests, wine alcohol production gave way to beet alcohol, which has not since regained its previously dominant position on the alcohol market. But the construction of the railroads opened up a new outlet, enabling wine produced in the south of France to be rapidly transported to cities where consumption had previously been supplied only by local production. These quickly lost ground as a two-pole trading system was created: a Languedoc trade buying and shipping harvests, and a symmetrical trade in the consumer markets, Paris being the most important.
Often blended prior to shipment, the wines were further blended on receipt; the price per degree-hectoliter being the basis of transactions, the operators’ objective being to obtain the lowest prices, both at the time of purchase and before sale to consumers. Inferior wines and hybrids found outlets because they cost less. Nothing was done to separate the production of blending wines from that of wines for distillation; finesse and nobility are not taken into account, while the only thing that matters is the quantity of alcohol – or degrees-hectoliters – obtained per unit of surface area. And for producers, nothing had changed: producing for bulk sale and blending, or for distillation, meant obtaining the highest possible yields, thanks to productive grape varieties and the planting of vines in plains, valleys and even in situations where cereals were traditionally grown. The habits acquired over a century and a half, which often had ancient origins, now weigh heavily on wine production in the South of France, at a time when the consumption of blended wines is falling year by year and a conversion to fine wines is becoming necessary.
THE SURVIVAL OF INTRINSICALLY NOBLE WINES
The intrinsic nobility of wines was so threatened at the end of the 19th century that the disappearance of fine wines was feared. Several reasons intervened to safeguard them, more or less effectively depending on circumstances and situations.
Rigidity of the production system
The first is the extreme rigidity of the production system, due to the long life of the vines, which acts as an obstacle to rapid change. While today’s grafted vines can produce for almost half a century, when well cared for, the ungrafted vines of yesteryear had a lifespan longer than a human generation. What’s more, the coexistence of vines of different ages in the same field has always slowed down changes in cultivation practices and, in particular, in training methods (spacing, alignment, pruning).
The loyalty of certain men to the production of noble wines
The second, and by no means the least, is the loyalty of certain men to the production of noble wines. This attachment may sometimes be purely economic in nature, but more often than not it has been maintained, and not without risk, by vineyard owners and those who work in the vineyards and cellars as descendants of the wine-making craftsmen who emerged from the feudal vineyards. Both are sensitive to the “honor of wine” – to use Olivier de SERRES’ expression – whose production represents, for humanity, much more than a purely economic objective. In fact, if this attitude has enabled noble wines to survive, it has lost its effectiveness when these heroic producers have become scarce, or when they have lost heart, often at the time of generational change, when a climate of connivance has been established around them on the practices desired for profitability and unbridled production.
Authority intervention
The last is the intervention of the authorities, anxious to protect honest producers and merchants and prevent consumers from being taken advantage of. In 14th-century France, the authorities sought to safeguard the quality of wine (prohibition of certain varieties, prohibition of fertilization) and to establish a formal link between the wine and its region of production through the burning of barrels at the place of shipment. But all the rules that had prevailed under the Ancien Régime were abolished by the Revolution. During the 19th century, profit-making viticulture flourished under liberal conditions, leading to abuses that once again required the intervention of the authorities, the first of which was perhaps the definition of wine as the product of the fermentation of fresh grapes, in 1889.
Since then, it has continued with ever more detailed regulations on wine, vines and wine names, so that no production or agricultural product is subject to so many stringent rules that one wonders why the survival of noble wines is still an issue.
GUARANTEE OF ORIGIN IN FRANCE
A wine cannot gain renown if it lacks finesse, originality and nobility. A wine’s reputation – and its price – is linked to its appellation. Wine appellations of origin have a more comprehensive meaning than mere designations of origin; they imply the wine’s characteristics (color, degree, keeping qualities, flavor, bouquet) and, at the same time, the location of the producing vineyard, the variety and the cultivation and oenological processes. The “name – wine – vine” series is inseparable. Yet, while consumers know the name and the wine, they only know what the two imply about the vine. As the name is often the main reason for the sale of a wine, and the main element in its price, the French authorities have been led to combat usurpation by gradually introducing increasingly precise rules.
THE LAW OF AUGUST 1 1905 on the repression of fraud in the sale of goods and the falsification of foodstuffs expressly provides for the repression of fraud involving origin. This includes misleading the designation (of wines) as to their type or origin when, according to custom, the origin is the main reason for the sale. The law of August 1, 1905 remains a starting point.
THE LAW OF AUGUST 5, 1908 stipulated that the delimitation of regions that could exclusively claim appellations de provenance would be based on constant local usage. This delimitation was entrusted to the administrative authorities, but although they were able to bring some of their work to fruition (Bordeaux, Banyuls, Cognac), the gaps in the law were such that difficulties became insurmountable, as in Champagne.
THE LAW OF MAY 6, 1919 introduced a far-reaching reform, giving the judicial authorities the power to defend producers – who so requested – against usurpations of the name when the wine corresponds neither to its origin, nor to the customs of its production, which must be local, loyal and constant. During this first phase, the legislator had, since 1905, been inspired only by a reluctance to follow usage, supposed to be good usage; but at the time, when France was just emerging from a bloody war, there were no clear doctrines for justifying usage, and no specialists in these matters. The courts were overwhelmed by the scope of the task and its difficulties.
The appellation d’origine system was once again called into question when the wine market, which had become heavily over-supplied in the space of a decade, was reorganized. The distillation of part of the harvest was imposed, but producers of wines declared with an appellation of origin escaped these charges, thus increasing the burden on producers of wines without an appellation. Production of appellation of origin wines tripled in just a few years, from 2,100,000 hl in 1923 to 5,700,000 hl in 1934. It was time to put things in order.
THE DECREE-LOI OF JULY 30, 1935, “organizing the wine market” limited exemption from charges to a new category of appellation d’origine wines, known as contrôlées, subject to production conditions relating to production area, grape varieties, maximum yield, minimum natural alcoholic strength and cultivation and vinification processes. These conditions were set by a committee made up of members, appointed by the public authorities, from the professions concerned, parliament and certain public services. The definition of these conditions gave rise to operations in the field following, in fact, a decision by the committee which did not leave any latitude to the experts in charge.
Nevertheless, the setting of fairly rigorous conditions was facilitated by the recession in the market for wines of origin, which favored limiting yields, as well as by the indifference of producers left outside the delimited areas; it owes much to the determination of the committee’s first chairmen (CAPUS, Baron LEROY) and the members with whom it was set up. Lastly, control in the field was entrusted to agents recruited for this purpose, at the level of agricultural engineers, while in the cellars it was the responsibility of the fraud control and tax departments.
Efforts have been made to establish the scientific basis for the experts’ work, but despite their determination, and although a synthesis was attempted on the occasion of the International Wine Congress (Paris, 1947), a simple comparison of the conditions for granting the appellation d’origine contrôlée with the agronomic conditions required for the production of noble wines, highlights the shortcomings of the regulations. In particular, the latter allowed complete freedom in the use of fertilizers and in the choice of rootstock, which are important factors in the vigor of the vines and, consequently, in the finesse of the wines; it was not very rigorous about chaptalization; finally, it only vaguely took into account the importance of the soil, without mentioning the role of the mineral species with which it is made up.
Along with the grape variety, the soil is an essential factor in the originality of a wine, and it was obviously not possible to take it into account when delimiting the most extensive areas (regional: Bordeaux, Burgundy, etc.), which are agrologically heterogeneous. Moreover, this was not the intention of the legislator, who, since the 1905 law, had constantly referred to usage, which by the end of the 19th century was no longer a sufficient basis from an agronomic point of view. And, in many cases, by not even respecting usage, we seemed to be lacking in conviction. These provisions, to whose credit we must nonetheless attribute the spectacular recovery in French production of wines of origin, therefore suffered from the absence of sufficient agronomic foundations, without which they could not successfully oppose either the systematic pursuit of profit by professionals, or the demagoguery of elected representatives, and even less so the temptation of those in power to use them as the means of an economic policy very much attached to the development of exports. After the Second World War, the production of vins d’origine was to fill this void, and sometimes get lost in it.
There was, however, one method available to experts for determining the geological formation on which the appellation d’origine zone was established. One of the first scientific papers of note was by E. ROUSSEAUX and G. CHAPPAZ (1904) on the soils of Chablis. The authors noted that the vineyards of the time, still quite similar to traditional vineyards, were established on Kimmeridgian marl soils covered with Portlandian colluvium. This was the real Chablis, exactly delimited by the geological layout. The method is generally applicable. The first, the CASSINI map (approx. 1:86400), drawn up at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th, gives the topography and location of the vineyards, but it is not very precise and sometimes incomplete, as the vines are not represented in at least one region.
Much more accurate are the 1:80,000 maps drawn up in the 19th century by the State Major’s officers; the first sheets, corresponding to the first surveys before the railroads, show the situation of the vineyards before the middle of the 19th century, at a time when the traditional vineyards had undergone few changes. With these materials, it is possible, for each wine of origin, to locate the area of greatest frequency of vines, which is most likely to correspond to the greatest fidelity to the uses with which the wine acquired its fame. It is then possible to identify the characteristic geological formation whose outline, on modern geological maps, gives the exact delimited area from which unsuitable land (humidity, soil depth, exposure, etc.) is to be excluded, which is not difficult.
It is regrettable that this method, or another equally rigorous one, was not adopted during the delimitation process. By relying solely on the characteristics of the soils in relation to the alcoholic strength of the wines (heterogeneity, slope, shallowness, etc.) and consequently neglecting an essential scientific fact, the delimitation work left the door open to abusive extensions, to the creation of competing foreign vineyards and to those of varietal wines.
GUARANTEE OF ORIGIN AND GUARANTEE OF NOBILITY
The limits of the guarantee of origin are clear. By establishing a hierarchical system, ranging from the broad and heterogeneous base of regional appellations (such as Bordeaux, Burgundy, etc.) to appellations with a restricted area (e.g. communal), the legislator did not intend to single out an elite among wines. The appellation d’origine is, in fact, a collective property, attached to a delimited area, in which it benefits all growers; it is vain to hope that they will all be in a position to accept the sacrifices required to produce a noble wine, either because of the natural characteristics of their farm, or because they have to face unfavorable circumstances, or because they have neither the will nor the means to do so. There is therefore no need to confuse a guarantee of origin with a guarantee of nobility. It’s not surprising that the “top of the range” appellations of origin contain the most noble wines, but, as has been established, the regulations in force since 1935 contain too many loopholes for such a confusion to be possible.
IV – CURRENT SITUATION
After the Second World War, consumption of origin wines in France expanded rapidly, making the limits set by the 1935 decree-law instituting the Appellations d’Origine Contrôlées (AOCs) feel like an unbearable corset. This has led to an expansion in the production of these wines, while at the same time provoking or encouraging other forms of individualization, such as branded wines and varietal wines. The effects of these trends on the production of noble wines are worth examining.
EXPANSION OF FRENCH ORIGIN WINE PRODUCTION
It has more than quadrupled in half a century, and is the result of several mechanisms:
Increasing yields
The increase in yields has been general; a comparison of yields imposed by the first decrees (1936) with those of today, which are just as legal, is perfectly illuminating: long pruning, nitrogen fertilization (unregulated), the adoption of vigorous rootstocks (unregulated) which has seen some vineyards go from riparia to S04, and sometimes irrigation, are, along with chaptalization, the main practices responsible for the loss of wine’s nobility. This is not true everywhere, or all the time, but it takes a great deal of wisdom for people not to succumb to the temptations offered to them.
Surface extension
The expansion of surface areas, which has been general, has occurred through two mechanisms:
In general, there was nothing to prevent this in the delimited zones of the regional appellations, which were far from being entirely planted with vines in 1939, nor in the most prestigious ones.
Entirely legal, these new plantings were established in situations that traditional wine production, with its concern for wine quality, had neglected (wooded areas, cow meadows).
The quality of the wine suffered as a result.
The creation of new appellations corresponded, in the most frequent examples, to appellations defined by the judiciary, in application of the law of 1919, which had not been taken into account by the decree-law of 1935; the promotion of these “vins délimités de qualité supérieure” was preceded by a field visit by experts and delimitation work.
Raised to a level similar to that of regional appellations, but with a grape variety that often required tidying up, these new appellations d’origine are rarely a source of noble wines.
But in other situations, new appellations have been created from scratch when it was very difficult to appeal to old, local, loyal and constant customs.
The decentralized structure of the supervisory body into regional committees, which cannot be insensitive to local interests, has played a major role in these events, which can be criticized in more ways than one, and in which producers have not always found an advantage.
Clearly, the political authorities saw in the extension of the production of vins d’origine a factor favorable to France’s foreign trade and, at the same time, a means of reducing the plethora of blended wines.
As a result, wines of origin have become commonplace, with a proliferation of appellations that can only confuse ill-informed consumers.
In short, there is no denying that the results of this extension of the surface area occupied by the production of wines of origin have not been conducive to the production of noble wines, particularly in terms of the choice of grape varieties and soils.
Alteration of traditional wine characteristics
The alteration of the wine’s traditional characteristics has not been confined to changes in the area of cultivation, soils and farming practices; in some cases, it has also affected the grape varieties planted. Traditional varieties, with which the reputation of the original wine had been forged, were sometimes abandoned in favor of varieties grown in other regions producing wines of greater renown. It’s a mechanism inspired by the causes that triggered the craze for varietal wines in the first place.
OTHER FORMS OF WINE CUSTOMIZATION
The personalization of wines, essential to their nobility, has been pursued in ways other than those opened up by appellations of origin: branded wines and varietal wines.
Branded wines fall into two categories
- In the first case, the trade asserts that it can be trusted to supply a wine under a given appellation that is known to consumers by that name, when it commits its responsibility, together with its trademark, to ensure that this correspondence actually exists; the protection of names of origin thus merges with that of trademarks, which has been organized, since 1824, by very precise and restrictive provisions, the application of which, both nationally and internationally, is the responsibility of specialized departments. The origin and nobility of the wine is not guaranteed by these provisions, because the name no longer designates anything more than a type of wine; it is, in the truest sense of the word, a generic name that makes people say Sauternes, Chianti, Chablis, etc., just as in French we say moutarde de Dijon. Producers’ interests are not respected, because there is no link between origin and price, but between brand and price; moreover, an unassailable perversion of the type can occur. This doctrine has been adopted in many countries, most often on other continents, but in recent years they seem to have timidly embarked on the “French” path of guaranteeing origin.
- In the second case, a brand name is added to a name of origin; this can be done by a producer: the appellation d’origine “Margaux” is accompanied by a “château” name. The nobility of the wine is then backed by a double guarantee, that of the authority for the appellation of origin and that of the producer for the name of the château; this is almost always the case for the noblest wines, but the guarantee is only complete if bottling is carried out by the producer (château bottling). The same applies to the terms domaine, clos, climat, etc., under the same conditions. The nobility of the wine is more difficult to accept when the brand name (château, etc … ) is applied to a blend of wines from the same appellation of origin by a merchant or within a cooperative, as is often the case with regional appellations.
Varietal wines
Varietal wines highlight another way of personalizing wines. While the use of the grape variety name to designate the wine is traditional in some French vineyards, such as Alsace, it is much more recent in other regions. In France, the practice developed over the last few decades, when ordinary wine producers introduced into their vineyards one or more of the grape varieties used in famous wine-producing regions: Chardonnay, Sauvignon, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Syrah, for example. These varieties were introduced, with the approval of the authorities, first to improve the quality of ordinary wines, then, fairly quickly, to isolate the wine and sell it under the name of a grape variety, accompanied by the name of the producer, in effect his brand.
The results are very uneven, and cannot be very good, on the one hand because the production conditions for an original wine (soil, yield, etc.), and even more so for a noble wine, do not have to be respected.It has been proven that a variety capable of producing a fine, noble wine in the right conditions, can only produce common, even coarse wines in fertile soils and when subjected to generous pruning. And even in seemingly favorable situations, varieties cease to produce fine wines when established in unsuitable soils; you can’t go from acid to limestone soil with impunity.
This trend, which is being encouraged, may have found an example in certain countries that have only recently taken up viticulture, where wines are designated by the names of European grape varieties that produce famous wines. It has been reinforced by the creation of entire estates, sometimes large ones, in which specialists have taken part, boldly assimilating soils that are very different from those of famous regions. The deliberate abandonment of the French doctrine of appellations d’origine in favor of what is, in the final analysis, no more than an uncontrolled brand name, illustrates the intellectual disarray engendered by the prosperity of vins d’origine production. It took courage for the producers of these wines to endure the precarious condition they were in before 1935; it takes at least as much to organize prosperity. But what about the clerics?
OTHER EUROPEAN WINE-PRODUCING COUNTRIES
In general, regulations in these countries are more recent and less advanced than in France, where controls are the responsibility of a number of different departments, but remain relatively rigorous. The differences between nations are evident in the “European” regulations, where the agronomic basis for the production and elaboration of wines of origin is very difficult to grasp. In these conditions, the nobility of wines can, in general, only be based on a producer’s brand, and the regulations specific to each country remain sufficiently different to make any comparison uncertain.
COUNTRIES OF RECENT VITICULTURE
In countries – continents – where European vines were not part of the indigenous flora, vines and viticulture, as well as wine, accompanied the pioneers; historical data leads us to distinguish several cases.
- On the American continent, from Argentina to California, vine cultivation followed the Spanish conquest and the Catholic religion. In California, the Spanish names of the Catholic missions established there still bear witness to this, as do the names of the grape varieties that were obtained from seedlings, probably by the monks, and are still cultivated in all Latin American territories. After this initial phase, which was certainly full of difficulties and of long duration, viticulture developed thanks to the contributions of European emigrants from wine-producing countries.
In South America, viticulture has had to solve basic problems with means that have long remained limited; the scale of those needed to create wineries and make wine has favored large estates and harvest buyers. These structures were hardly conducive to the production of noble wines. Despite the introduction of fine grape varieties (Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, etc.), the production of noble wines could not take shape: structures, planting in fertile land, irrigation, and at the same time, the orientation of the few men of science towards profitability, were hardly favorable. In addition, the development of wine spirits to solve an economic problem (with the production of table grapes for export) has played a negative role: Pisco in Chile, Brandy in Mexico, for example. Nevertheless, situations can vary widely, and it is probably in Chile that the agronomic conditions for obtaining fine wines are most favourable, although all the elements are not yet in place.
- The evolution has been different in the United States. In the eastern states, and in Canada (Ontario), where pests and climate are obstacles to the cultivation of European vines, most vineyards have been established with direct-producer hybrids, obtained in America itself or in France, and with a few varieties of Vitis Labrusca, the indigenous vine species; the wines are hardly accepted by European palates. In California, where the natural environment is conducive to European-style cultivation, sultana and other apyrenean grape varieties dominate in the warmest locations, for raisins, fresh grapes and other uses. Wine production moved to the north of the state with the example, now known in Europe, of Napa Valley. In this particular case, around 1980, there were almost 9,000 hectares with a production of 72,000 tons (around 80 quintals, around 60 hl/ha); 213 of the vineyards were planted with red grape varieties (including, p. 100, Cabernet Sauvignon 37, Pinot noir 18, Zinfandel 14, Valdiguié 8, etc.) and the remainder in white (of which 100%, Chardonnay 27, Chenin 19, Riesling 17, Sauvignon 8, Colombard 6, etc.). It is therefore possible to obtain fine wines with this grape variety, although Zinfandel, Durif and a few others play an unfavorable role.
However, the vines occupy fertile soils at the bottom of the valley; the oldest vines are pruned short, with spurs, while the most recent and most numerous are trellised. Planting density is very low, reduced from 1,735/ha (2.4 x 2.4 m) to 1,160/ha (2.4 x 3.6), and uses vigorous rootstocks, mainly Rupestris du Lot and Aramon Rupestris Ganzin N° 1. Conditions could be better on slopes and rugged northern sites, but vines quickly give way to wooded areas. Ten years ago, there were 600 vineyards in the county, ranging in size from 4 to over 100 hectares; but the structures are far from those in France and other European countries, because buying in the harvest is a fairly common practice. And mechanized harvesting is not helping the wines.
Considered an investment, the creation of a vineyard requires substantial financial resources, especially as the value of the land itself is high. It can cost $50,000 per hectare, although the site has attracted European investment. Wines are most often sold under a grape variety name or that of a European vineyard, accompanied by a brand name. The imitation of renowned European vineyards is undeniable, all the more so as specialists from these countries are called upon to create and run businesses; however, it is unlikely to lead to the conquest of markets in Europe for a long time to come, as it cannot stand up to comparison with the noble wines of the old wine-producing countries. But it can play a certain role in the USA, and thus thwart European exports to this and other markets.
Australian viticulture, of even more recent origin, has undergone considerable expansion over the last twenty years. Sultanas are grown extensively not only for drying and fresh consumption, but also for winemaking, contributing to the production of a dry white wine. Wine consumption, which is rising sharply, exceeds 4,000,000 hl for a population of 15,000,000, with white wines accounting for 80%. Older plantings included Riesling and Traminer, but more recent plantings have focused on Sémillon, Ugni Blanc, Colombard, Crouchen (a French Pyrenean grape), Chemin and Chardonnay.
The wines are marketed under European wine names (Chablis, Sauternes, Mosel, Burgundy); production is carried out by large farms, industrialized and sold by retailers under their own brand names. More recently-created vineyards, on areas of just a few dozen hectares, are oriented towards the production of varietal wines (Pinot noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, etc.). This is the case around Melbourne, where the wine is bottled at the vineyard and sold directly to retailers or consumers, who are invited to cellar tours and tastings. This can be the start of a selection phase for producing vineyards, which experience in France has shown to be time-consuming. South Africa’s vineyards (over 110,000 ha, of which 100,000 are devoted to wine production) are different from those in the past.
While it’s possible to distinguish Latin American vineyards (Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, etc.) from Anglo-Saxon vineyards (California, Australia), South African viticulture doesn’t fit into either of these historical patterns. Created by the Dutchman Jan Van RIEBECK when the colony was founded in the mid-18th century, the first vines were the seeds of the Constantia plantations planted by Governor Simon Van Der STEL. The “Governor’s wine” acquired a certain renown. The French Huguenots who arrived at the end of the same century planted vines and established farms, some of which still bear names of French origin. Constantia wine became known throughout Europe, but the historical conditions of its production were lost; the harvests of ordinary wines were sold in the UK, in place of European wines, held back by the Napoleonic blockade, with favorable conditions maintained until around 1860, when a long crisis began.
It wasn’t until after the First World War that it came to an end, thanks to the restoration of tariff preference in the British Empire. The United Kingdom still receives two-thirds of South African wine exports. The grape variety is highly composite; it is of some technical interest to note that the presence of grape varieties formerly grown in Dutch and English vine greenhouses has been reported (Lady Downe’s seedling, Madresfield Court, etc.); but the grape varieties currently grown were introduced from France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal and the United States. South Africa, in turn, was the departure platform for certain varieties to Australia.
White grape varieties currently occupy around two-thirds of the vineyard, mainly Chenin (Steen), Listan (Franschurt), Muscat d’Alexandrie (Hannepoot), Colombard, a Riesling, Clairette, Sémillon (Green Grape). The less cultivated reds, with a few original varieties such as Pontac (teinturier) and Pinotage, are based on the latter, Cinsaut (known as Hermitage) and Cabernet Sauvignon. The plant material is richer than in other countries of recent viticulture. But the same points can be made here: industrialization and concentration of production in large companies, or in a powerful cooperative. Production bottling is exceptional. Dessert wines (Xerès) and brandies are produced. These conditions are hardly conducive to the production of fine wines, but the agronomic aspects of the question have not been seriously addressed. The diversity of natural situations (climate and soil) and the resources of the vine stock, as well as the presence of qualified specialists, do however offer possibilities.
IN CONCLUSION, countries that do not have the thousand-year-old winemaking tradition that remains the privilege of those who formed the Roman world, have had to face many problems, the most urgent of which was not the production of wines fine enough to acquire intrinsic nobility, for want of a distant nobility of origin. This was, and remains, a difficult problem, for reasons that we shall endeavor to highlight.
- To create a fine wine from scratch is to come up against the absence of any concrete reference, as creators can only rely on data transmitted orally or in writing, from distant, unverifiable sources, and not without a certain (and inevitable) distortion. The Burgundian grower who plants a vineyard on the Côte de Beaune is unaware of this uncertainty.
- It’s when it comes to grape varieties that the choices seem to be the least difficult, because the grape varieties of Europe’s renowned vineyards have been known for a long time; but what was known was the names, not the grape varieties; hence the confusion, of which California (among others) provides a few examples, such as Sauvignon vert to designate Muscadelle, Grey Riesling for Trousseau Gris, Green Hungarian for Putzscheere, Napa Gamay for Valdiguié, Early Burgundy for Abouriou, and so on. This synonymy has now been clarified, but it was the source of many errors in the first choices.
- The problem of finding the right environment, both climatically and agrologically, was another matter altogether; the absence of references was sorely felt. This question has yet to receive a favourable (and clear) response, for reasons that also apply to the development of cultivation and oenological practices, the most important of which can be briefly mentioned. From the outset, structures have been unfavorable to the selection of natural environments and processes, due to the centralization of products of diverse origins, both in terms of the size of the farms and the disastrous practice of buying in the harvests, both of which are opposed, sometimes simultaneously, to the identification of elite wines and the discovery of where and how they were made.
The scarcity of managers and skilled workers is in stark contrast to the wine industry, whose tradition and know-how are more than a thousand years old, at least in France. This gap has not been adequately filled by immigrant specialists, most of whom have found it difficult to fit into the local milieu; and the inevitably too brief stays of reputed mercenaries from other countries have not had any better results in this difficult field than the creation of wines of indisputable intrinsic nobility. Last but not least, there has been a noticeable lack of conviction on the part of the scientific community. While progress in oenology has been exemplary in some cases, it has not been matched by equivalent progress in the development of cultivation practices and grape varieties. The pressure of producers, inevitably attracted by the profit motive, has been stronger than the will of specialists when the latter had enough vigour to claim to oppose it.
There may be an explanation: the examples were borrowed from European viticulture as it appeared at the end of the 19th century, when it had taken on a commercial character against which it was only to react – too weakly – towards the middle of the 20th century. So it was European commercial viticulture – not, and for good reason, feudal viticulture – that inspired wine production on other continents. That bad examples were chosen more often than good ones should come as no surprise. But it remains paradoxical that, victim of a certain naiveté or snobbery, European viticulture today looks for examples in the imitation of what is not the best in Europe. Perhaps this is another betrayal of the clergy.
IIV – GENERAL CONCLUSION
Obtaining a noble wine depends on the agronomic conditions of production and wine-making, which are known and scientifically justified. Guaranteeing a wine’s nobility is a necessity. Without it, the reputation acquired by a noble wine thanks to the implementation of very precise agronomic conditions is exploited unduly if one (or more) of these conditions, recognized as indispensable, is abandoned. This guarantee must be twofold. First, it requires compliance with conditions similar to those governing the use of appellations d’origine in France; however, these provisions must be strengthened and supplemented. Secondly, it simultaneously requires the implementation of the provisions that apply to trademarks. With this double guarantee, the noble wine is presented to consumers under an appellation of origin, which is a collective characteristic, and under a brand name, that of the producer, excluding all possibility of blending by canning.