Robert Ehrlich writing in the Independent on 22 April 2006 berates the French approach to marketing their wines - a theme we have touched upon numerous times.
"How many of the following Vin de Pays names ring a bell, let alone a bell of excitement: Gers, Var, l'Ile de Beauté, Portes de Mediterranée, Duche d'Uzes, Côtes Catalanes, Côtes des Thongues? All produced constituents of the top 100 Vins de Pays , but using the Vin de Pays name as a selling point would - in most cases - simply be futile. A member of the on-trade, with responsibility for buying wines for his firm's pubs, says that selling these wines would be "incredibly difficult" when they were placed alongside well-known names from Chile, Australia or New Zealand."
There is an annual Top 100 Vins de Pays competition held every year in the UK, and in truth there are many really good wines available under this classification. Vins de Pays has in many ways been part of the French response to the competition from the New World, as it is less prescriptive than abiding by the full Appellation Controllee rules - and at the top end allows adventurous winemakers to produce some really innovative and exceptional wines. The "Vins de Pays d'Oc" from the Languedoc is a good case in point - although the area which this covers is a vaste swathe of southern France - the Aude, Herault, Pyrénées-Orientales and Gard - i.e. from Carcassonne to Nimes. But within this regional classification there a 4 departmental Vins de Pays and over 50 separate local classifications.
Even though I know France and French wines quite well, i would struggle to identify where the Vin de Pays des Monts de la Grage comes from (34 Herault - east of St Chinian). I confess that I really do not know what this nomenclature is supposed to tell us - the general wine style is unlikely to be distinctively different from the adjacent and equally obscure Vin de Pays des Coteaux du Fontcaude; the information which could count would be the name of the vineyard or winemaker. Vin de Pays d'Oc and the grape varieties used is probably as much as I need to know to filter a wine into or out of my initial selection - beyond that I would want an informative back label which tells me more about the wine and why it is different/better than anything else OR some local knowledge OR a decent recommendation. Otherwise most consumers will go for the easy better known choice.
Ehrlich does go on to recommend several wines, and in general seemed impressed with the wines on offer (except for single varietal Cabernets and Merlots). The results of the Top 100 Vins de Pays 2006 will be published in May - you can find the results (and those for 2005) at www.vins-de-pays.info/100vdp
Our recommendation for Vins de Pays d'Oc would be Cyril Cuche's Domaine de Puechredon in the foothills of the Cevennes at Puechredon north of Montpellier, who produces some excellent single varietals as well as a superb blended Reserve Cuvee.
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