Indigenous grape varietals versus Research and Development

WINE TALK
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[soap.gif]

I posted an online video about a Gewürztraminer and a Chardonnay being grown in the Languedoc, and something unexpected happened. I was expecting some Alsacians and Germans to come in and say that the Languedoc should mind its own varietals instead of trying to steal theirs. But what I had instead was a Languedoc winemaker come in and say that we should work to preserve our indigenous varietals rather than replace them all with young Gewürztraminer or what have you.

I am all about the quirky varietals that belong to the Languedoc and I plan on tasting copious amounts of them on the show in the future, but I think it’s cool that people are exploring other varietals too. As long as the wine is good, right?

And most of our “Languedoc varietals” aren’t truly indigenous. But whatever. What do you guys think? Should the travesty of overplanting bad Chard without regard for terroir prevent the government from spending money on the investigation of other varietals?

If anybody reads French, you can see the comments for yourself. And, if you are moved, feel free to post a comment on the blog in English or whatever the heck language you feel like.

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The guys in the Languedoc are an odd bunch aren’t they? If they don’t like you, they bomb your operation. If they can’t sell their wine, they protest in the streets to get the government to do something.

I know - gross exaggeration. Still. . .

Anyhow, I think the idea of “indigenous” grapes is a complete load of shit. Grapes, or at least winemaking, probably came from the area that’s now Turkey, Iraq, Azerbaijan and Georgia. So please, which grapes are exactly indigenous to France, Germany, Italy or Spain, much less the US or South America or Australia or S. Africa?

Over the years, the ancestral grapes mutated and developed and produced progeny that became poplular in certain areas. Let’s argue that since all that is before recorded history, we will simply ignore it.

Fine. Many varieties were brought in to western Europe by Phoenicians, Celts, Greeks and Romans. Which of those are properly indigenous? That starts to cross over in to recorded history. Grapes like chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, melon, syrah and others arose from what were probably “natural” crosses in various vineyards. So if the parent was not indigenous, could those be indigenous? Let’s assume they are.

Now we have some kind of working definition of indigenous - grapes that have been established in regions as long as we’ve been talking about winemaking in those regions. That would cover lots of Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Greece, Romania, even Austria, and perhaps part of France and even some sections of Spain.

Then why is garnacha grown in the Languedoc? It came from Aragon. Why is monastrell grown there? It’s also from Spain. What about carinena? It’s also from Spain. Those were all brought in only a few hundred years ago. And what about syrah? It’s from the North Rhone. So cross all of those out of the Languedoc.

“Oh no!” they cry. “Those are what we’re used to. It’s anything we’re not used to that we don’t want! Anything grandpa didn’t plant can’t be here!”

So we end up with the actual definition of “indigenous”. It is simply whatever we are used to. And we will protest, legislate, and even bomb to prevent anything new from happening.

But unless they’re willing to rip out all of their garnacha, they shouldn’t complain about chardonnay. If the chardonnay isn’t any good, that’s the producer’s problem. Let him drink it himself.

And in anticipation of the oft-repeated claim that they’ve had hundreds of years to find out which grapes work best in which areas, well yeah Right. That means there are the records for the performance of Žlahtina in the Languedoc or Bordeaux because certainly it must have been tried there.

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Right!? I hope it’s just a minority voice, because it sounds like Grape Nationalism. Plus there’s an extra layer of confusion you can add to your rant. The notion of what constitutes “Spain” “Languedoc” and “Roussillon” has changed enormously in very recent history. The dudes who brought Carignan from Spain to France probably didn’t think of themselves as Spanish or French but as Catalan or whatever other regional identity prevailed in that century.

I’m glad somebody is even more vehement than me because I was starting to feel crazy.

On another note, autochthon is an awesome word. And one the winemaker used to slyly dodge our criticism. It can technically refer to “the earliest inhabitant” so an autochtonous varietal is just the earliest varietal to appear in the area. But screw that rhetorical play, because that just makes the stance more arbitrary. Like we should just keep planting whatever was here first solely out of a sense of nostalgia (or maybe the belief that our ancestors could never ever be wrong).

Oh well. Thanksfully, nobody has threatened me with anything stronger than Rumsfeld quotes. I thought the CRAV would like the fact that I talk about Languedoc wine. I didn’t know I’d be pissing people off by talking about the wrong wines.

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Oh, but there is a native Languedoc variety (‘varietal’ is an adjective, not a noun, BTW). It’s called aramon. There used to be hundreds of thousands of acres planted to it. Then in the 19th century (no, not any earlier than that!) they began bringing in those dastardly foreign grapes from Spain. Full of sugar and color and things. I think they should go back to aramon. It gave those wonderfully vegetal, thin, pinkish pseudo-reds with 9º alcohol. Come to think of it - isn’t it what everyone craves in this age of climate change and a return to fashion of lighter, more acidic wines? Vive l’aramon!

[winner.gif]

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I had heard Aramon was probably Catalan/Spanish too. But your point remains! Sometimes Oldies are not Goodies.

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Re-reading my post today I guess it was a bit of a rant. Oh well. [soap.gif]

Regarding whether the grapes were Spanish or Catalan or something else, that’s a whole extra layer of argument and it will be interesting to see how that evolves in the future. To the degree that countries may give up any national sovereignty to the EU, it will be fascinating to see who gets to determine what goes where.

Anyway, even better, wasn’t a celtic tribe responsible for bringing Biturica to Bordeaux, where it became the ancestor of the carmenet line, and may even be Carmenère, and may have come from, what shall we call it to avoid political distinctions - Iberia? I think Pliny said it was a cross between something wild in Iberia and something brought in by Romans, so in either case, seems like none of the Bordeaux grapes are indigenous or even properly autochtonous, which I agree, is a pretty cool word.

I’d like to see our friends in the Languedoc introduce some legislation requiring removal of those grapes! [tease.gif]

Although to his credit, one of the posters noted: “Oui c’est vrai la plupart de nos cépages “identitaires” sont d’origine espagnole.”

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True that, Jean-Baptiste is a reasonable man. I’m probably going to check out his vines soon. Heard a lot about them.