{"id":7075,"date":"2021-05-12T15:00:36","date_gmt":"2021-05-12T07:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.ift.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/?p=7075"},"modified":"2021-05-12T15:26:02","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T07:26:02","slug":"the-marvellous-world-of-french-wine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/the-marvellous-world-of-french-wine\/","title":{"rendered":"The marvellous world of French wine"},"content":{"rendered":"\u4e2d\u6587\u6458\u8981 \/ Summary in Chinese<\/span>\n

Name 5 things you immediately associate with France. Perhaps the Eiffel Tower? The Louvre Museum? Gourmet food? High-end fashion? Since you are reading this column, I am almost certain that French wine will be on your list too. For many consumers, French wines have a magical, spell-like power: they are often the first stop when browsing a wine shop\u2019s aisles looking for a bottle to offer to a good friend, or when ordering from a long wine list in a fancy restaurant on a first date, or the first choice for a wine served at an official business dinner.<\/p>\n

France is arguably the most important wine country in the world. It is not only the native land of most of the \u2018noble\u2019 grapes that are now grown internationally \u2013 namely Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc \u2013 but it is also home to some of the most sought-after wines on the planet. Even for those that do not drink wine, names such as Ch\u00e2teau Lafite Rothschild, or Dom P\u00e9rignon in the world of champagne, are likely to ring a bell.<\/p>\n

There is a whole ecosystem dedicated to the trading of French fine wines. For example, the famous annual \u2018en primeur\u2019 campaigns \u2013 essentially \u2018wine futures\u2019 similar in nature to trading in other commodity futures (such as crude oil) \u2013 often capture the world\u2019s attention with record-breaking trading prices for top Bordeaux and Burgundy wines.<\/p>\n

En primeur refers to the process of buying wine while it is still in the barrel. Wine samples are drawn from the barrels and are tasted by wine merchants and renowned wine critics. The wine is then offered to buyers on the promise of physical delivery at a later date, usually 2 to 3 years after the vintage\u2019s release. This system provides winemakers with the cash flow they need to sustain their operations, as wines cannot be made and sold overnight. Otherwise, wine producers would only be able to recoup their years of investment when the wines were finally bottled after a long ageing process, and sold.<\/p>\n

For consumers, en primeur presents an annual opportunity to buy fine wines at an attractive price, as market demand and intermediate margins are likely to push up the respective prices of these wines over time.<\/p>\n

Investing in fine wines can take many forms. There is an online trading platform for fine wines called Liv-ex (The London International Vintners Exchange), tracking real-time transaction prices. It also provides Liv-ex indices (https:\/\/www.liv-ex.com\/news-insights\/indices\/<\/a>) for investors\u2019 reference, very much like the Dow Jones or Nasdaq indexes for company stocks. There are even fine wine investment funds available to investors.<\/p>\n

Although en primeur sales and valuations via the Liv-ex indices are not exclusive nowadays to French wines, the latter undoubtedly still dominate such schemes. To draw an analogy, French fine wines such as those from Domaine de la Roman\u00e9e-Conti, <\/em>trading in the range of MOP100,000 a bottle, are very much like Ferrari or Lamborghini supercars: they are expensive, rare and famous, but also simply out of reach for the majority.<\/p>\n

Parlez-vous fran\u00e7ais?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fortunately, as the second-largest producer of wine in the world, France has a lot more to offer than just expensive premium wines. Often, many lesser-known regions or producers offer wines of exceptional quality and at an affordable price, although searching for such a wine can be a challenging experience for many consumers.<\/p>\n

Interpreting French wine labels alone can be an overwhelming process, as they are not the most consumer-friendly things, to say the least. Such wine labels are often only written in French and without many descriptors of the wine itself. One must learn to interpret a key piece of information on the label \u2013 the appellation \u2013 which implies critical details of the wine such as the grape varieties used, the style of the wine, etc. This practice has to do with the French wine laws which are very strict on wine labelling.<\/p>\n

The Institut national de l\u2019origine et de la qualit\u00e9 (INAO) is the government agency under France\u2019s Ministry of Agriculture responsible for the appellation d\u2019origine controlee (AOC) scheme, the system for classification of French wines, and the counterpart European Union-wide system for classifying origin of wines, the appellation d\u2019origine prot\u00e9g\u00e9e (AOP) scheme. The AOC\/AOP combined system when applied to France not only indicates a designated wine-producing area in that nation, but also represents a particular style and quality of wine.<\/p>\n

The different AOC\/AOP appellations are named according to the area in which specific wines are made. To be able to use the AOC\/AOP designation on a wine, the winemaker must meet a comprehensive set of rules specified by the INAO. These include regulations on the grape varieties permitted for use in the wine\u2019s production, minimum alcohol level, the length of ageing prior to release to the market, and the maximum yield of the vineyard, among other things.<\/p>\n

In the past, average consumers might have needed a wine guru by their side to tell them about each appellation. Fortunately, with today\u2019s smartphone technology and easy access to the Internet, a quick search using wine databases or search engine websites such as www.wine-searcher.com<\/a> can provide consumers with most of the details needed for making a wine-purchase decision.<\/p>\n

Technically speaking, a wine that features an AOC\/AOP designation on its label should already belong to the highest quality tier among the 3 classification levels in France: AOC\/AOP wines traditionally top those of the indication g\u00e9ographique prot\u00e9g\u00e9e (IGP) and Vin de France designations. Wines with AOC\/AOP designation are nonetheless widely available and are sold at a variety of price points. It is not difficult to find a bottle of AOC\/AOP Bordeaux red at a local supermarket that retails for a mere MOP50, but quality-wise it is miles apart from the top fine wines that also bear an AOC\/AOP designation. Therefore, the AOC\/AOP system can be used as a starting point to understand the basics of French wine, but one must always keep in mind that the actual quality of a particular wine is highly dependent on the winemaker, not the appellation alone.<\/p>\n

France might not be a very big country by area, but there is a lot of diversity to explore in its wine regions. Do not be put off by the sometimes-confusing appellation laws or labelling traditions. Making good use of resources available online can help consumers in successfully navigating this marvellous wine nation. In the coming months, the Wine Education Corner will be looking at some of the key winegrowing regions of France, and will be on the hunt for some quality bargains along the way.<\/p>\n

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This month\u2019s recommendation:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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