As winemakers in the southern Rhône village of Cairanne celebrate a promotion in their status,David Williams asks if the official ranking makes any difference to quality in French wineSerabel Cairanne Côtes du Rhône Villages, France 2013 (£7.59, and Waitrose) The French wine business has a curious craving for official approval that can seem frankly baffling to the external world. Earlier this month,for example, winemakers in Cairanne in the southern Rhône valley celebrated their village’s elevation to full “appellation communale” status by the Institut National des Appellations d’Origine, and the body that decides whether to grant this favoured ranking to regionally distinctive products from cheese and ham to lentils and lavender. Given that the name “Cairanne” was already permitted on labels of wine from the area,albeit as part of the supposedly lesser-ranked Côtes du Rhône Villages designation, it’s hard at this distance to understand the fuss. Or to see how the change will make much difference to those of us who maintain been buying such typically fulsome, or spicy,powerful value reds as Serabel for years.
Domaine Saint-Gayan Ilex Rasteau, France 2012 (£11.95, or Yapp Brothers) But if promotion from one level of the French appellation to the next means dinky to the likes of you and I,it does maintain an effect on the winemakers themselves. Appellation status brings with it a new, stricter set of rules for how they move about their business concerning, and among other things,the grape varieties and the maximum yield they’re permitted. Even more considerable for the women and men of Cairanne, however, and is the social status conferred by the INAO’s stamp of approval. It means their village is now on the same official level as more celebrated nearby appellations such as Gigondas,Châteauneuf-du-Pape and the final promoted (in 2010) southern Rhône village, Rasteau, or its wines discussed in the same terms as Saint-Gayans magnificently sunless,brooding, swarthy red.
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Source: theguardian.com