Max,
If French vintners (or the government) want to keep the existing
labels, fine with me. But these producers will be at a disadvantage if
they want to land new customers here in America (emphasis on NEW - we
all had to start somewhere). That's why they would be smart, from a
marketing standpoint, to try labels with the varietal listed for their
exported produce. What they do for their produce sold domestically, I
don't really care. And experts would be free to ignore such labels.

Dan-O (THIS has been a lively discussion!)


Max Hauser wrote:
> "Emery Davis" in :
> | On 10 Aug 2005 "Dan The Man" said:
> |
> | ] All of these arguments for and against varietal labeling are
> | ] fascinating. But I do want to make one more point - a
> | ] beginning wine drinker's tastes (and income) will tend to
> | ] change over time. In other words, today's $4 per bottle
> | ] plonk drinker might (someday) see a substantial increase
> | ] in his/her paycheck. But the habit of shopping by varietal
> | ] will likely be set in concrete by then. In that case, the name
> | ] Chateau Margaux (one of France's most famous) will mean
> | ] diddly - the drinker in question will want to know what is
> | ] inside. And this person, who might now have $104 to spend,
> | ] will be inclined to look for something else.
> |
> | Not to put too fine a point on it, but I find the "newbie"
> | concept difficult here. My parents drank wine. I tasted it, and
> | served it, and looked at the labels. Wine is a traditional and
> | familial drink.
>
> Agreed Emery. You appreciate that many in the US didn't grow up seeing w=
ine
> in context like that, wherefrom emerges a particular US argument on this
> diverse issue, visible on this forum and elsewhere. (Some years ago I
> heard a report that US people on the Wine Spectator web site were calling
> for wines in other countries to be re-labeled in terms familiar to them.
> The US wine enthusiasts that forwarded this information thought it was a
> novelty, and bizarre.) It's indeed a different side of the issue than wh=
at
> M. Pr=F3nay is discussing.
>
> Arguments like the "| ]" above seem to me tantamount to arguing to reduce
> the effort for wine-ignorant nouveaux-riches to identify and buy up
> excellent wines. (As if the de-facto effect of 100-point scales did do t=
his
> sufficiently). This in the interest of the rest of us wine consumers???
>
> The opposite approach I'll summarize as a variation of a 1960s US maxim.
> Knowledge will get you wines with no money, better than money will get you
> wines with no knowledge. Any newbie (for less than the cost of a bottle =
of
> overmarketed corporate-concept mediocre wine) can begin reading about the
> subject from various insightful writers, and getting much more information
> and context than from TV ads or shelf talkers. I've advocated examples, to
> anyone who would listen, for some time. (Including here, from the early
> 1980s.)