Decanter World Wine AwardsLoire producer faces jail for protest labels
- Monday 10 October 2011
Olivier Cousin, who farms 10ha biodynamically at Domaine Cousin-Leduc in the Layon Valley, stopped labelling his wines as AOC in 2005 and opted instead for vin de table.
He did this in protest, he said, at the laxity of the appellation controlée regulations – particularly when in 2003 authorities allowed producers to acidify as well as chaptalize.
He then started labelling his Cabernet Franc ‘Anjou Pur Breton’.
Breton is the local name for Cabernet Franc, but the fraud squad (DGCCRF - Direction Générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répression des Fraudes) visited him in March 2011, subsequently charging him with with mislabelling and bringing the appellation into disrepute, an offence which carries a €37,500 fine or up to two years in prison.
The case is further complicated by Cousin's wine boxes continuing to bear the initials AOC - a pun on the initials Anjou Olivier Cousin – which he claims was done by his distributors and was nothing to do with him. Nevertheless, he told Decanter.com, it was this that started the whole affair.
The prosecutor in Angers must now decide if the case should go ahead.
Cousin told Decanter.com, ‘I stopped because the AOC is for industrial wines as the rules permit everything: weedkillers, huge yields, additives etc.
‘But I consider that I still make wine from Anjou. I do a lot to promote the wines of Anjou but under the vin de table rules I'm not allowed to put the grape variety, where the grapes were grown nor the vintage.
‘I cultivate the vines of my grandfather in exactly the same way as I did before [when they were AOC] and make them in exactly the same way.’
Cousin has also just a lost a case which has been running for 15 years in which he argued that he should not be obliged to pay membership fees for the local generic trade association because he did not agree with its aims. According to reports his bank accounts have been frozen.
Cousin's case has been taken up by his importers Les Caves de Pyrene.
Have your say!
James McFadyen
October 13 15:39
The constant strain of idiotic bureaucracy on all in the wine industry, is laughable. This is another prime example of bureaucracy run a muck. The fact that he is forced to join an organization he does not agree with the goals or rules of, and that they can freeze his bank account is insane. The fraud squad investigating him for mis-labelling his wines, do they not realize that they are being used as heavies for petty minded people!
This is just another Thevenet Domaine de la Bongran farce all over again!
Paul Rowbotham
October 13 09:22
The AOC system is great in principle (where would Cahors or Jura, for example, be without it) but ways have to be found of accommodating rather than alienating producers of really good, authentic wines. After all that is the point of the system. Quality and authenticity are what matters. Two quick wins; ban weedkiller and make winemakers put additives on the labels.
G.D.Saint Omer
October 12 07:43
When you protest at the laxity of the rule...they have to show it's not . The "AOC", as being on the boxes only and not on the label cannot be interpreted as a fraud or will to confuse the consumer. " vin de table" is now opted by a lot of very good winemakers who are just fed up with the unending paperwork...and they often sell at higher price than average AOC .We hope someday the Prossecutor will taste some AOC wines which are the shame of the category and wonder why french AOC sell poorly if not backed by a brand ...or good press article . THANKS !
Alastair
October 12 03:59
I'll buy his wine and to the DGCCRF I say, " Va te faire foutre."