You often hear the critique “Why don’t the French make more wines with the grape variety on the label? It would be so much more easy to understand!”.
Well, maybe for some: A survey has shown that only 42% of the French claims to have heard of the concept “vin de cepage” (wine sold under the grape variety name) and only 15% could give a correct example of such a vine.
The most common grape varieties cited were: Merlot (named by 3.6% of the respondents), Cabernet (2.8%), Chardonnay (2.1%) and Gamay (1.9%).
All according to La Journée Vinicole.
2 Responses
Thanks for the explanation. Was in Cebezan, (Languedoc) Southern France, the other day and decided to by pass the co-op store and visit a tiny cellar in the middle of the village. It turned out to be an independent wine maker selling Vin de Cepage Grenache. Only 4.5€ a bottle so we couldn’t expect too much but to our surprise turned out to be an affable quaffer. Quite rustic but with a charm. One noticeable thing was the weight of the bottle. Compared to the Megalithes, which I might add was mega-fantastic, it weighed about one third the weight.
Thanks for the comments. You point to two things that have changed quite rapidly over the last few years though.
French wine producers are today making much more vin de cepage than what they used to. It is particularly popular (among producers) in the Languedoc.
Also, a lot of people have started to question the wisdom of using heavy bottles and we are seeing more and more light-weight bottles. Heavy bottles are of course still quite popular though.