There was an interesting article on the BBC news website yesterday with regards to the quality of French wines under the “appellation” system. Apparently over the past few years the controls of the appellation d’origine controlee have become more lax and thus causing the quality to suffer by as much as almost a third. In many cases definitive links between the regions and varieties of grapes claiming to be where the wine was from could not be established.

I thought I was the only one who realised this, and I realised this ages ago. Anyone who likes the occasional bottle of wine could see (or rather taste) that the quality of French wines was declining rapidly over the past few years. I like many other people at first thought it was simply because other regions around the world (Australia, South Africa, Napa, etc) were starting to make a name for themselves and increase the market competition. However, I now believe that the increased competition coupled with the declining quality is what doomed the French wines.

Unlike members of the UFC-Que Choisir, I am not convinced that an overhaul of the system is going to make much of a difference in protecting “wines under the most prestigious AOC label.” Why? The answer is really quite simple, because once people get a bad taste in their mouth they are unlikely to go back for seconds. People recall good wines they have had but they also never forget the bad ones.