'Shocked' French rosé producers slam EU label concession
March 26, 2009
By Graham Tearse
French winemakers, outraged at proposed new EU regulations to allow rosé wines to be made from a mix of whites and reds, have won the right to carry a special designation on labels indicating that their rosé wines are made from 'traditional' production methods.
But the concession by the EU Commission, announced 24 March, did little to placate the French producers.
'This is entirely insufficient,' Marc Rolley, head of the ODG Côtes-de-Provence winemakers association, the largest representing French rosé producers, told decanter.com.
'It still allows the mixing of reds and whites and it is against this that we are opposed. We don't make a sub-product. The fact that we have to justify ourselves is shocking and is standing the problem on its head,' he added.
France is the world's premier rosé-maker. It accounts for 10% of global production and 28% of all European production, ahead of Italy. French rosé wines are traditionally made from the brief maceration, or alternatively the pressing, of red grapes.
While the method is not unique to France, the process of rosé winemaking has been the object of considerable investment, chiefly among the country's southern vineyards, over recent years. 'The EU will now undo 30 years of efforts we have made in hoisting rosé into the category of noble wines,' said Mr. Rolley.
The Commission is due to approve new regulations on 27 April allowing EU winemakers to produce increasingly popular rosé from mixing whites with reds, a practice commonly used among producers in other regions.
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Not all French producers are shocked, indeed. And this is why France's representative in Brussels voted for the proposal. By the way, this proposal clearly says that each appellation can decide for itself if it wants to allow blending or not in its regulations.
AGEV (the General Union of French wine producers) also states that the Provence producers participated in the negotiations at the French national level, and that no opposition was phrased in Brussels at the time of voting. So today's indignation in Provence is really suspect -political arms- wrestling and smoke-screening, I guess. We should not allow ourselves to be fooled. And after all, France has no monopoly for well made rosé. Worthy of note is the fact that Champagne rosés have been using the blending method for decades, without any problem.
Côtes de Provence will be able to go on producing bad and good rosés the way they've always done - more thorough controls in the cellars would probably reveal that not all Provence producers respect their own rules, but that's another debate.
Anyway, why not make a blind tasting of rosés made according to the old rules and others, from diverse producing countries? For us journalists, the proof of the pudding is in the drinking.
Hervé Lalau
So I pop an 06 Chassagne-Montrachet rouge vielles vignes (whatever that means: 25, 50+ years old) and it is thin and green and sharp mostly- some cran and cherry, all on the tart side. Not today and not I think in 10 years but who knows, in five it might undergo a wondrous transition and become, shall we say, sex in a glass? It was put aside for another day, wherein a trusted white burgundy, Xs Macon Villages 07 was flabby, and a far cry from the 06 which had archetypal mineral character (boast if I must). So 07 white, meet 06 red (60/40?) and voila, a dark rose or light red of great fruit and charming balance, a perfect synergy of Chard & Pinot, still!
So this is the state of the nation of France, of Burgundy for the moment, where consumers are forced to do their own blending to achieve a satisfactory result not a pretty picture and not one most consumers would undertake
Michael Donohue
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