War of the Rosés

Don't know who else read about this, but I thought it was interesting. I actually missed the action while it was occurring last summer, but apparently the E.U. hit on something that was more deeply felt than all the other cultural issues one might feel would make the E.U. an unlikely success -- messing with the wine. The E.U. created a law that would let wine makers anywhere in Europe create "rosé" by just pouring a little leftover red into some white wine. Of course, it wouldn't taste like rosé, but it would be really cheap, and would give wine makers somewhere to offload any leftover wine.

France went ballistic and pretty much said they'd outlaw the E.U.'s law. My favorite quote came from Christophe Delorme of winemaker Domaine de la Mordorée, "Politicians are a kind of cancer that spoils everything."

Initially, the E.U. said that, to make it clear what was real rosé and what was blended dregs, they'd label them "traditional" and "blended." (Kind of reminds me of "Coke classic.") This didn't make anyone happy.

When Italy joined France in the fight, the E.U. decided to ditch the new law. They issued a statement that it had been made clear to them that producers were worried that the trashy "blended rosé" would "damage the image of traditional rosé." No mention of the fact that a glut of nasty, cheap wine could further damage all the great wine houses of Europe.

It's nice to know that there is somewhere the line is drawn. As with the foie gras ban in Chicago, so with the wine, France made it clear that, you could get rid of the franc, but you couldn't mess with the wine traditions.