This is not the first time AOC Quarts de Chaume winemakers have lobbied successfully to reduce the status of their Rochefort-sur-Loire neighbours' wine.
In 2003, the latter group received permission from the INAO (France's national institute of appellations of origin) to call their wine AOC Chaume-Premier crus des Coteaux du Layon.
But the AOC Quarts de Chaume complained the term 'premier cru' would be confusing to consumers and would dilute the value of their own AOC.
AOC Chaume won the argument, but no sooner were they allowed to call their own 100% botrytised Chenin wine AOC Chaume when AOC Quarts de Chaume producers argued again that the region should only have one AOC.
A spokesperson for AOC Chaume producers – whose wine is from low-yielding vines on about 60ha – said they were disappointed for themselves and for consumers, as their wine clearly had twice met the quality standards set out by the INAO.
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Did they (AOC Quarts de Chaume) ever go after the syndicat of growers in Vosne-Romanée to remove 'Premier Cru Les Chaumes'?
Or were they scared that an extra 500 years or-so of history might mean them losing ther own...(petty politics only for the sake of it).
Bill Nanson
What's absurd is the Quarts-de-Chaume is...or should be - the best quarter of Chaume. Anyone who cares to distinguish down to anything more exacting than Coteaux-du-Layon is going to know that Chaume is representing a different area from Quarts-de-Chaume....but oh...politics....POLITICS!!
Scott Cameron
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