With a dramatic swallow of national pride, France’s wine regulators have just authorised the use of oak chips and irrigation for vins de pays and vin de table, and from the 2004 vintage will allow producers in Bordeaux and Burgundy, previously restricted to making AC wines in these regions, to make varietal vins de pays. So yesterday’s Bourgogne Rouge will become Pinot Noir Vin de Pays, possibly chipped and, in very dry years, possibly from irrigated vines.
The president of Onivins, in charge of wines at the lower end of the market, commented “we must simplify our...