Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/221505
Liberté, Égalité . . . Qualité THIS JUST MAY BE THE NATIONAL MOTTO OF FRANCE'S NEW WINE REVOLUTION: INTRODUCING VIN DE FRANCE by Meridith May / photos by Nikki Ritcher F rance has reinvented its wine trail. Introducing Vin de France wines, a new designation that unshackles winemakers and growers from the country's restrictive appellation system rules and restraints, opening the doors for any grape variety to be grown, bottled and labeled anywhere in France. And it's blessed by the French government. ANIVIN DE FRANCE, a trade organization composed of representatives from independent producers, co-ops and négociants, was established in 2009 with the goal of creating marketdriven wines in France, allowing the country to better compete with the world's other wineproducing countries, where regulations are not so strict. "Terroir in France changed the taste of the planet," explains board member Laurent Delaunay, President and Winemaker for Burgundy-based Badet Clément & Co. As a marketer/producer and négociant, Delauney realizes that Burgundian wines are here to stay, "but grand cru wines, champagnes, etc., are for the specialist and connoisseur. Now, with more people drinking wine, Europe needs a category to adapt to the challenge for a national wine from France." A New World of Flavor arises from Vin de France, an official national appellation created and supervised by French organization ANIVIN DE FRANCE. Its leaders toast the revolution: Laurent Delaunay, President and Winemaker for Burgundy-based Badet Clément & Co.; Valérie Pajotin, Managing Director of ANIVIN DE FRANCE; and Bruno Kessler, President, ANIVIN DE FRANCE. 56 / the tasting panel / december 2013 TP1213_034-63.indd 56 11/23/13 8:26 PM