| Opinion 2 |
Interview 2: Louis-Fabrice Latour, President of the Syndicate of Negociants on upgrading Burgundy's regional wine. |
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Louis-Fabrice Latour, President of the Syndicate of Negociants, voices his opinion on upgrading Burgundy's regional wine. |
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| Two years ago Louis-Fabrice Latour, President of Maison Louis Latour, became the President of the Syndicate of Negociants, as his father and grandfather had before him. I went to see him in the spring to seek the official opinion on the topical issues affecting the regional wines of Burgundy, 80% of which are sold through negociants. |
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| The most pressing issue is how to make regional wines more competitive in the international export market. The potential solutions under consideration include decreasing vintage and varietal percentage to 85%, varietal labelling and whether or not to create a vin de pay category for Burgundy. The problem of poor generic quality and unsold wine affects the reputation of the whole region. Of course the illustrious domaines have no difficulty selling their top quality Bourgogne rouge and blanc, but as de Vilette indicates in the previous 'Opinion' slot, everyone is concerned with the plight of the lesser growers who sell to the negociants or struggle under their own label. Something must be done. |
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| Negociants and growers argue that it is difficult for them to compete with vin de pay and New World rivals when their production methods from planting, pruning, trellising, vinification and ageing of wine is strictly controlled via the appellation contrôlée (AC) system and administered centrally by the INAO (Institut National des Appellations d'Origine) in Paris. The regional associations are lobbying for power to be devolved to them. Bordeaux has been particularly vocal on this point, and Louis-Fabrice Latour, speaking for the negociants, is equally keen to see decision making be taken regionally in Burgundy. |
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| Change is afoot. This year the AC decrée for wine is being rewritten and the negociants would like to relax some conditions of production at the regional level, such as decreasing density, (reflecting de Vilette's view). The high costs of managing a vineyard with 10,000 vines per hectare, bears no relation to the return on a regional wine. "We need more flexibility to fight the competition," says Latour, "although our demand for change is less radical than Bordeaux's." |
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| The 15% option |
The negociants would also like the flexibility to allow for 15% of another vintage or variety in regional wines. I asked whether they were concerned about obscuring vintage character? Latour considers this unimportant at the generic level. On the contrary the negociants consider it an opportunity to increase overall quality and consistency by blending reserves from a good vintage into a poorer one. This seems to be a logical approach and would put them on a level playing field with European regulations on imports into the EU in which 85% of the wine in the bottle must reflect the vintage declared on the label.
In terms of increasing quality and consistency the argument for including 15% of another variety is less convincing given that current law stipulates 100% Pinot Noir or Chardonnay. It is quite conceivable that the inclusion of Aligoté or Gamay might dilute quality, and therefore is really a cost saving measure. |
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| Varietal labelling |
| On the marketing front, the use of varietal labelling makes perfect sense. Two thirds of the regional wine sold by negociants is varietally labelled. This has never been officially agreed, but is tolerated. The negociants would understandably like to see it formalised. Latour is keen to point out that they have the support of the wine growers in this and even top end producers such as Pierre Morey use Chardonnay on their Bourgogne blanc. |
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| Of course there is an argument that varietal labelling detracts from geographical origin and devalues the raison d'être of Burgundy, namely its terroir, or at the very least it fails to capitalise on origin. Latour is unashamedly blunt on this point. "We do it because we want to sell the wine." He and his fellow negociants are acutely aware of their eroding market share in the UK, and Latour feels that the situation is worse in the States where Australian wine sales are rapidly encroaching. "It is not shocking to want to use varietal names for our regional wines. We need to appeal to the young customer used to asking for the grape variety." He would like to see the trade offering French Chardonnay or Pinot Noir along side the same varieties from Chile, New Zealand et al. If the customer chooses French wine, this he considers would be opportune moment to draw attention to the appellation...a Chardonnay from the Mâconnais and so forth. |
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| Occasionally in Burgundy there is a whiff of sour grapes...although not at Maison Louis Latour. Burgundy gave Chardonnay, arguably the most ubiquitous white variety, to the world of wine and while that world has traded on it, many customers are unaware that white Burgundy is made of their favourite variety. The flip side is that Burgundy is in the ideal position to capitalise on the hard graft of the New World establishing the 'Chardonnay brand'. Latour smiles at the thought. "This is justice." |
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| Agrément |
| While few in Burgundy dispute the use of varietal labelling, the system of agrément, the tasting and official approval of wine to meet appellation standards, is much more controversial. Renaud de Vilette expresses his views on this topical subject in the preceding article. The negociants would like to see double agrément tastings formalised to include a transactional agreement, when wine changes hands. They argue that they should not take the risk of buying a wine which may subsequently fail to be authorised. The growers who supply them are prevaricating. They in turn argue that the negociants have the experience necessary to make such buying decisions on wine. At the moment there is an impasse, but recent changes in key personnel across the various growers unions may bring some compromise. |
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| In fact the risk to the negociants is small. Latour confirms de Villette's opinion that 99.5% of wines are approved. "There are many wines," he says, "that do not deserve the appellation." So presumably the negociants would like to see tighter quality controls? On one hand Latour would like to see stricter controls to improve wine quality, but he is concerned about the fate of rejected wine. "They cannot become table wines because they are chaptalised," he says. "Therefore the only option is distillation. The big question is what to do with the bad wine?" |
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| As an outsider observer the natural consequences of a business making poor quality or otherwise unmarketable wine would be dwindling sales, followed by the demise of such businesses. Arguably the only serious way to compete in a market economy is to abide by the same rules as the competition...do as the Australians, the Chileans.....but the French approach is weakened by a culture born of a long history of agricultural cushioning, subsidies and the like. So perhaps they must use this approach (in the form of compensation) to encourage the weak players out of the market. Something must change or substandard wine will receive the AC stamp of approval, and thus devalue the appellation contrôlée system. |
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| In answer to this Latour argues that most Bourgogne rouge and blanc does in fact find a home, although he concedes that it's vintage dependent so that while 2002 and 2003 posed no difficulties, there is a backlog of unsold 2000. (The figures given to me by the BIVB indicate that there is a total of 50,000 hl of unsold stock of red wine, representing about 10% of an average vintage of red). In Bordeaux the situation is more acute and the proposed solution radical. Bordeaux is receiving subsidies for uprooting 8,000-10,000 hectares of vines from vineyards of "insufficient quality" (CIVB), but Burgundy's negociants do not see this as an option or a necessity. Bordeaux has 120,000 hectares under vine while Burgundy has just 22,000. |
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| Vin de pays |
| What of the option to create AC a vin de pay category, another solution favoured by the Bordelais in the belief that freedom from AC restrictions will enable them to compete more effectively with the New World. In July 2004, Latour tells me, central government and INAO officials in Paris informed them of plans for a 'mixed appellation' in Burgundy, namely Vin de Pay de Bourgogne. Only Beaujolais producers were in favour. "We know some wine...such as Mâcon rouge and Beaujolais can be hard to sell, but this is not the way out for Burgundy," insists Latour. "Bordeaux want it all. We don't." For example Bordeaux are calling for freedom to use oak chips (in vin de pay), but the Burgundian negociants are strongly opposed to such measures. "We really just want to sell more regional wine at a good price. The solution is to improve quality." |
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| Latour finished with a plea. "Burgundy was worshipped during the Nineties for its quality and for keeping its prices reasonable. Now times are more difficult and we are criticised. We didn't deserve the worship and we don't deserve the criticism." Perhaps this is true, but sadly that is the nature of a fickle market. Everybody knows the answer is to deliver the wine that the market wants. Rewriting the old decrée, relaxing certain methods of production, new faces and a fresh approach in the grower syndicates constitute an opportunity. But only time will tell whether they will lead to the quality improvements needed and thereby solve the problems of Burgundy's regional wine. |
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| Monsieur Bertrand Devillard, President of the Communications Committee of the BIVB, voices his opinion on these issues. |
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