New rules for Bandol wine

INAO has defined (somewhat) new rules for Bandol.

In short:
- Manual harvest is compulsory
- Enriching or concentration of the must is not permitted (reverse osmosis, cryo-extraction…)
- minimum 18 months in barrel for the reds
- Grape varieties as follows...

Red wines
- Main grape varieties: Mourvedre, Grenache Noir, Cinsault. Mourvedre. Must make up between 50% and 95% of the total
- Other permitted grape varieties: Carignan, Syrah. Can represent up to 20%, each one not exceeding 10%

Rosé wine:
- Main grape varieties: Mourvedre Noir, Grenache Noir, Cincault Noir. Mourvedre at least 10% from 2011 (20% from 2014) and a maximum of 95%
- Other permitted grape varieties: Bourboulenc Blanc, Carignan Noir, Clairette blanc, Syrah Noir, Ugni Blanc. Max 10% for each, max 20% in total.

White wines:
- Main grape varieties: Bourboulenc, Clairette, Ugni Blanc. Clairette minimum 20% from 2008, min 50% from 2011. In total these varieties must represent at least 60% (80% from 2011).
- Other permitted grape varieties: Marsanne, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Vermention (=Rolle). The same 10/20% rule as above (withe the exception of Sauvignon B that can represent a bigger proportion until 2011).

Napa Wine Confusion goes to Supreme Court

In earlier Briefs we have talked about the conflict between Bronco Wine Co. and the Napa Valley Vintners. Bronco is selling a wine that is labelled “Napa” but does not contain any grapes from Napa. Bronco can do this because of a legal “loop hole”. Napa Vintners wants to stop this, arguing that a “Napa wine” should be made from Napa grapes. This conflict is now going to the Supreme Court after having been won by Napa Vintners in the California Supreme court. We can only hope that Napa Vintners is successful. It must be a bit confusing for consumers that Napa wine is not really Napa wine… Read more in e.g. The Press Democrat

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