Vine growing in France

The Viticulture is the culture of the vine, with an aim often of producing wine (the term of viniculture then is employed), but also of the table grapes or the dry grapes. In France, it finds its sources at the time of the Roman Empire.

In 2004, it is still about an economy primarily based on family exploitations. For a long time, wine France with 450 names and tens of thousands of fields of small size, in spite of its fabulous potential, waited until one comes to buy his wine to him and did not learn how to sell it, except for the élitistes clubs of the " Large crus" or of the " Champagne".

French regulation

The choice of the Cépage S for the production of Vin of table is not free any more in France since the publication into 1953 of a bearing decree on the orientation of the wine production.

In 1955 the type of vines were classified in 3 categories:

type of vines recommended;
authorized type of vines;
tolerated type of vines.

Since 1970 Community legislation recognizes only two categories the type of vines recommended, resulting from varieties of Vitis L. will vinifera adapted to their zone of culture, and the authorized type of vines, whose culture is not desirable. (it is practiced an abatement of surfaces of 30% in the event of authorized type of vine replanting)

It should be noted that there exist also prohibited type of vines: the clinton, the Herbemont, the Isabelle, the Jacquez, the noah, and the Othello.

The choice of type of vines is very strictly regulated for names AOC, and freer for the local wines.

According to the vineyards, the type of vines can be vinified only (wines monocépages) or mixed (wines of assembly). Alsace and Burgundy are for example traditional wine monocépages vineyards whereas Châteauneuf-of-Pope is the most obvious illustration of the concept of assembly (to 13 different type of vines are authorized). In the same vineyard, the two practices can coexist: thus in Bordeaux, the Medoc often result from assembly, whereas the Saint Emilion and Pomerol are frequently pure merlot.

These practices of wine making are not to confuse with the recent concept of type of vine wines, which corresponds to local wines monocépages in which the form of type of vine without interference of the soil is required: a Grillet Castle is an elaborate prestigious vintage starting from the only type of vine viognier on the universally famous soil of Castle Grillet, a local wine of the drôme viognier is a type of vine wine, in which the consumer expects to find the characteristics of the type of vine viognier and they only.

Reform French wine die

The European consumer became during the years, more demanding, more selective, more looking on quality and curious about the wines of other regions. In France, average consumption regressed of almost 10% of the year 2000 with 2005.

In July 2004, the Minister for Agriculture Herve Gaymard launched the reform of French wine die by receiving the representatives of the professional organizations who sit at the council of the Onivins (National interdisciplinary office of the wines). They are to leave one the greatest crises than the sector knew of its history (most serious remaining the phylloxerna crisis which saw disappearing certain whole vineyards), because not an area does not escape from the dramatic fall from the sales and the bankruptcies of number.

Three causes are responsible for the current location, a constant fall of consumption at the levels world and national (France remaining first consumer country in the world), the competition of the foreign wines, reinforced by one euro too strong, but also an extreme complexity of the French production and its inadequacy at the overseas markets. As a memory there have approximately 160 local wines and 450 AOC. The worst can côtoyer the best and the consumers are décontenancés in front of the labels of the French wines and their classification between the table wines, the three local wine denominations (secondary road, of zone and regional) (there are in fact only local wines of department and local wines of zone, but there is in fact of the great zones which are superimposed with small for example local wines of oc or the local wines of Doors of the Mediterranean), AOVDQS, AOC and the vintages.

Rene Renou, president of the committee of the wines and spirits of the INAO, charged with the AOC and author with a radical reform project, announces: “If we do not do the housework ourselves, the market will do it in our place (...). The consumer does not find himself there, it is necessary to regain its confidence and to always produce better wines”. Exports fell of 3% in 2003 and in the first quarter 2004, they record a fall of 7% in value and 4,6% in volume, compared to the first quarter 2003.

The new organization proposed is articulated around two great groups of products:

Those whose offer is built on the soil and the typicity, as the AOC (“marketing of the offer”).
Those able to answer waitings of each category of consumers and capable to adapt to the requirements of the international markets (“marketing of the request”), those where the competition is hardest, and where one will propose identifiable wines by their type of vine or their mark, and which will be able to have access to new technologies, like that of the use of the etc, shavings

One white paper of the French vine growing was submitted to the National Assembly. The text is available on the site of French documentation (White paper of the French vine growing)

Soils

The name of the soil from which the wine is resulting is indicated on the label of the bottle.

The soil is a very French concept which makes it possible to recognize with each wine a personality from the Cépage S used, from the grounds on which the vines push, from the microclimates of which they profit, from the know-how of the vine growers which cultivate it, vinify it and raise it, and even things which appear unimportant like the quality of the cellar or that of the barrels of oak.

In Burgundy, the soil is often delimited by the pieces identified well with the land register and by low walls. There are hundreds bearing the name of the pieces and separate in “great wines” and “first vintages”.

In the Of Bordeaux one, the soils bear the name of the owner and the label quotes only the name of the castle and its classification in of “first vintages classified as” established in 1855.

For the wines in AOC, the mention “raised was of oak” indicates a technique of breeding which makes it possible to bring to the wine a taste of wooded. The mention “old women vines” indicates a wine made with grapes collected on old vines and which has an interesting aromatic complexity in general.

Large soils

Soils of small size

Wines of Auvergne
Vineyard of Bugey
Vineyard of the slopes of the Lyonese
Vineyard of the Moselle
Vineyard of the Resident of Toul

Old soils

Wines of Argenteuil
Vineyard of the Ile de France. Until the 19th century, it was the largest vineyard of the kingdom. Three causes led to its decline: the railroad which allowed the wines South, less expensive, to flood the markets of North at low prices; the colonization which made it possible at low prices to import strong alcohol wines since the the Maghreb; the Phylloxéra which ruined many wine-producing areas.

Other wines

Local wines
Wines of type of vine
Wines of mark
Table wine

French production

The potential for 2004 of the French wine harvest is estimated at 56,6 million hectolitres, that is to say a rise of 2% compared to the five last years and of 19% compared to the 47,6 million hectolitres of 2003 affected by spring freezing then by the heat wave.

FNSEA (National federation of the trade unions of farmers) and the Jeunes Farmers require a “support of the economic situation”, with the exploitations more in difficulties, a temporary measurement of pulling up, a “support for marketing”.

The Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin is in waiting of “white paper” on the wine, centered on the problems of publication and public health, and whose principal revendiquation is to regard the wine as out of food, such as the fact the Spain since July 2003.

More of the third of the French production is past with export for nearly 6 billion euros, but its historical main markets - the United States, Germany and Bénélux - seem to be sulky the French wines. Only the English remain faithful customers, but in quantity only, because the progression of the imports benefit the the United States primarily with the Australia and the South Africa which show a frightening commercial effectiveness.

Charts of the vineyards

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