Château Les Barraillots Village: Margaux Appellation: 7ha Margaux Grower: Yannick Martin Chateau Les Barraillots is the last small and independent wine producer in the village of Margaux and one of only a few “Crus Artisans” in the Margaux appellation. The vineyard was obtained from Palmer and Durfort in 1928 and 1933. It is situated among the highest elevations in the commune and the soil type is permeable gravel. The modest house and winery are a quarter of a mile away, on the outskirts of town, literally on the other side of the tracks. The Martin family used to raise dairy cows there, not only for the income derived from the milk, but also for the manure used in the vineyard. Yannick Martin, who took over from his father in 2014, told me that growing up he spent way too much time repairing fences. Although Yannick still uses exclusively cow manure as fertilizer, today the cattle are gone and he has more time to concentrate on his wine production. Margaux In Medoc dialect “barrail” or “barralhe” refers to a bank of land marking the boundary of personal property. Although it is not obvious to my eyes, the small hillocks of Chateau Les Barraillots divide the property from the surrounding plots of cru classes. The average vine age is 40 years and the varietal mix is 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc/Petit Verdot. The planting is very dense with most sections having 10,000 plants per hectare. No chemicals are used in the vineyard and harvesting is done manually. Fermentations are done in stainless steel and the wine is aged in barrels (20% to 25% new) for twelve months with several rackings. This period of natural clarification is completed with the use of egg whites for fining before bottling in the spring. News December 30, 2021 Preview: Vintage Reports 2019 Every year about this time we ask our winemakers to send us reports on the current vintage : events over the growing season, harvest conditions, what's happening in the winery during these early stages. It takes a while for all reports to roll in, which we will eventually compile and publish on our Vintage Reports page. Meanwhile we've received enough responses from all over France, from Champagne, Loire, Southwest, Rhone, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Beaujolais...to post a preview of Vintage 2019. Having heard from wine makers in different regions of France, weather conditions in 2019 were almost uniform, north to south, east to west, having to do with similar climatic irregularities during the growing season. All inconsistant with historic norms. Warm winter and early spring, leading to early bud set, only to be beset by frosts in April and delayed flowering, then heatwaves and drought in summer, somehow miraculous comebacks with needed rains at the end of the growing season, and clement harvesting weather. In general there was a loss of yields but high quality fruit. Climate changes are tangible and posing serious challenges to wine growers who are now needing to anticipate how to adapt their wine growing methods to deal with an erratic and quickly changing growing environment. Notes from our winemakers : L'Yonne Domaine d’Elise, Chablis, Frédérique Prain The year 2019 = a hot and dry year Alas, we had a bit of hail at the beginning of April and again in late April. The hail beginning of May at which time buds were between 1 and 12 cm. With this persistant cold budding was slow, taking through the end of May. The vines were in full flower around June 17th Which put the predicted harvest date at September 25th;Then the heatwave came! Very hot at the end of June: 38°C, beautiful all of the beginning of July and at the end of July, record hot temperatures in Chablis : 42.6°C on the 25th of July. End of August it was still very hot, and above all dry. So the harvests began in the region the beginning of September, around the 10th in Chablis, on the 17th at Domaine d’ELISE! The quality is excellent but its necessary to take note that there a lot of underdeveloped berries that were slightly dried out, and some even burned by the sun. The yields are only 40HL/HA instead of the usual 60. The degrees vary between 12.5 and 13.5, which is very high for Chablis and Petit Chablis. However the acidities are correct, allowing for making characteristic Chablis. They will be for medium term keeping. The juice is already tasting very well : its round and fruited, very agreeable on the palate. Since the year 2000 we've experienced many good years, despite climactic warming. Often with excessive ripeness comes a decline in acidity, which is not suitable for Chablis. Happily, le Domaine d’Elise always has good acidity because of its rocky, very calcareous soil. Savoie Domaine des 13 Lunes, Savoie, Sylvain Liotard The 2019 vintage was the vintage of confirmation for me (my third year), in spite of being a growing season of all possible climactic hazards. We had frost, hail, violent winds and 3 months of drought. I was anxious about protecting the grapes. In the end, the losses were not too bad, (15 to 20%). The acidities are for the monent high, a real mountain wine. The maturities were very good but heterogeneous, resulting in quite a bit of millérandage (mixed sized berries and partial crop failure). The fermentations are quite variable, according to different parcels. Those that got hail are taking more time. I really like these wines to come, I think that they will have great personality. I just finished (end October) putting the wines in tank or in barrel to finish fermentations and for maturing. Autumn work begins, earthing-up the vines, treating of the soils, replacing certain vines and a bit of commerce. Beaujolais Domaine du Crêt de Bine, Sarcey, Florence Subrin 2019, a crop of excellent quality but a small crop as a result of climactic hazards. The 2019 vintange for us will have been remembered by the successive late frosts in the month of April, as well as the hailstorm on the 18th of August. With the very warm start of the growing season, vegetation started early, then suffered the climactic "rewind" of a sudden drop in temperatures in April. Follwed then by a lovely spring and a hot summer, which was favorable to good ripeness of fruit. Unfortunately, the quantity was affected by a violent hail storm in August. Nevertheless, this small yielding season, makes up for itself in quality. Indeed, with such beautiful fruit, very balanced with delicate aromas, we are able to vinify wines that reflect that beauty the of fruit. Entirely hand harvested over 9 days, our 2019 cuvées are showing a rare finesse with beatiful bright "cherry" color, all with no added sulfur other than a minimal dose at bottling to protect them during transport. Beautiful "Natural" cuvées, are equally "Beaujolais" ; they will be released in the Spring 2020. Sud-Ouest Chateau La Caminade, Cahors, Dominique Ressès Here is my first impression of the 2019 millésime. We’ll say that the vintage, started a bit poorly with a spring frost (May 6th), but finished well, though with a reduced quantity, but superior quality than we estimated. In addition, a beautiful, hot and dry summer provided conditions for the vines to catch up on the delay caused by the Spring frosts. Finally, some rains at the end of August and beginning September, followed by nice weather, hot during the day, cool at night, during the whole rest of September, made for a lovely and homogeneous ripening of the fruit. We started harvesting the 3rd of October and finished the 9th, days were cloudy and cool. Today we can say that this vintage will be easy to drink, gourmand, with low acidities and high pH (already 3.6/3.7 before malolactic!!!) Loire Domaine Christophe Thorigny, Vouvray The harvests went very well. The crop is correct with a good quality in spite of the difficult climactic conditions of the year : 20% of vines affected by frost in the spring, heatwaves and drought this summer. Domaine Verdier-Logel, Côtes de Forez, Julie Logel The year 2019, once again, translates as an exceptional year, in the sense that the climate has upset the usual growth patterns of the vine and challenged the wine grower. Frosts during Spring and little rain caused a delayed development of the vines, which only started coming into a phase of fruit maturity at the end of August, which meant the winegrowers had to roll up their sleeves after traditional summer vacations. In the end, the harvest was quite satisfactory concerning quality. Vinification is just now finished, the wines are starting the maturing process and are already displaying a 2019 vintage that is less powerful than 2018, but more typical of the wines of the Forez and express the granite and basalt terroirs of the region. Champagne Champagne Perseval-Farge, Montagne de Reims, Isabelle Perseval Each new vintage is an occasion to write a new page in history and above all to understand new winegrowing conditions in the changing climate. The 2019 winegrowing season was once again quite singular : the erratic climactic cycles meant we had to organize ourselves around spring frosts, sudden unusual cold temperatures at budding and then heat waves during the summer. These changes in weather are recent and their consequences are unknown ; with little hindsight, an evolution is in progress. Each year we have to review the new imprint and rethink our production strategy. The musts are very aromatic, and stimulate the palate. They have fruit, balance, concentration with a touch of liveliness, everything is there. The fragrances emanating in the winery are so pleasant, we can’t wait to taste the first wines. Nature has given us the best, now it is up to us to magnify the fruit of our labor. The Chardonnay has quite particular aromas : complexity, fruitiness, while the Pinot Noir and Meunier are powerful and elegant. The 3 forgotten varieties (Arbanne, Petit Meslier and Fromentot) are very expressive. Their specific aromatic profiles are complementary : they combine freshness, balance, generosity and finesse. The production of the Cuvée Les Goulats remains very limited [1,000 bottles approximately / year] In the end, the cuvées will be a reflection of the winemaker, his passion and his emotion. To that add patience to discover an acomplished wine….. Now it is time that everyone takes ownership of their own Terroir and takes responsibilty and makes decisions to maintain productive vineyards, and bring the quality of production to the highest level. It is our credo and we consistantly pursue this objective. On this note, we have the pleasure to announce that Henry, our second son, has taken his place at the winery and that he has come to observe and assimilate Benoist’s savoir-faire after his wine-growing/making studies in Alsace and 2 years of profesional experience outside of our domaine. Bordeaux Chateaux Barraillots, Margaux, Yannick Martin The 2019 harvests took place in very good weather with grapes in very sanitary condition. It was sunny the entire harvest from September 26 through October 10th. The grapes were healthy and well ripened. Vinifications are almost complete, this week (end October) we finish the juice runs and pressings. The malolactics are also almost finished. In brief, a lovely crop, very good quality and good yields. Rhone Domaine de Berane, Côtes de Ventoux, Bertrand Ferary We had quite a few suprises in 2019. We grow Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre. And for 19 years we have been harvesting them in that chronological order. For the first time Grenache matured before the Syrah. Incredible! In addition, maturities were blocked. One of the causes is that we had the hottest summer in Provence since 2003. The grape skins were very thick, natures reaction to protect the pulp from dehydration, preserving its own production. We did reach normal quantites, with wonderful deep color, with higher degrees than usual. We are performing many "déléstages" (multiple rackings of juice during fermentation and maceration, a process that aerates the juice and softens it by lessening time spent in contact with skins). And, hard to believe, for the first time, our Syrah and Mourvedre tanks have still not finished fermenting in early November. We expect they will have finished in a week. With this careful vinification, 2019 should be an excellent vintage. December 30, 2021 read the transcript : Ed’s presentation at “Petite Soif” Natural Wine Festival at Vif’s in Fremont, Seattle Drinking Wine and using GPS "it’s not what you think" Thank you to the staff of Vif for the Petite Soif festival and for asking me to speak today. By way of introduction, I can say that I am perhaps the last driver to utilize GPS and I do so with much loathing and suspicion. That might be all you need to know about me. I do admit that I have come around to accepting its role in my life. For the last 21 years, my wife, Barbara, and I have travelled a lot together, both searching for wines in France and then trying to sell them here in the States, and GPS has not only helped us to reach our destinations in a timely fashion, it has completely taken off the table the question of whether or not men ask for directions. GPS is not however, a replacement for maps. Spending hours in a car and having no idea where you are or where you’ve been or where you are going, is at the very least disorienting and more insidiously, fosters a loss of connection – specifically the connection to place. This connection to place is central to what I would like to talk about. In Amy Trubeck’s wonderful book, "The Taste of Place" published in 2008, she speaks in her preface about Maine potato farmers and their struggle to find an economically viable solution that would allow them to continue growing their traditional crop. One of the responses was to grow varieties of potatoes that are classified as culinary rather than industrial. This has many implications, but for the moment, I just want to highlight the distinction between industrial and culinary potatoes. This is something Michael Pollan was getting at in his book, "The Omnivore’s Dilemma". When this type of differentiation occurs with our food choices, Mr. Pollan reports that it causes us anxiety. So, if I may ask: How did you get here? Did you walk or ride a bike, Did you come by car and if so, how many passengers were in the vehicle? Does the engine run on gas, diesel or perhaps electricity? We do have choices to make, and for me, as regards our food and wine choices, the road forward recognizes place as the important anchor and compass. The discerning consumer of 2017 is interested to know about authenticity and typicity, a sentiment that echoes the French phrase "local, loyal and constant." There is a precedent. The ancient Egyptians used seals to mark their closures with information about the provenance of their wines. This practice continued with the Greeks and Romans who marked their amphoras with the names of domains and vineyard sights. This continued through the centuries and in the 18th century official decrees were passed to designate and protect vineyard areas. This was first seen in Tuscany with the Chianti region, in Portugal with the Oporto region and in Hungary with the Tokay region. The next century saw the major classification of Bordeaux estates in 1855 which gave rise to the notion of a "cru". (And no, I do not know the derivation of this term which seems completely self-referential and whose only root means uncooked. I don’t think that Chateau Margaux was calling its wine "raw" or suggesting that the wine should be served with crudité, but who knows?) The end of the nineteenth century was not kind to the vineyards of France and other European nations. They were attacked first by Oidium or powdery mildew in the 1850’s and then shortly thereafter by the aphid known as phylloxera. Both of these blights came from the U.S. By the end of the century the vine growers had found solutions to both problems and restoration was well on its course when as the 20th century arrived, a new blight appeared. It was homegrown and came in the form of fraud, both from the point of view of a product’s contents and its labelling. The wine and food producers looked to their government for help and protection. It is interesting to look at how the French government fashioned a durable response to the concerns of both the French wine and food producers and the French consumer, and in so doing, created a roadmap to deal with the problems producers and consumers face today. A law was passed in France in 1905 that protected against producers who "falsely attributed the location of origin of the merchandise as a way to sell their goods." I find it mildly amusing then to remember how ,when I first entered the wine business around 1980, the store shelves were packed with Ernest and Julio Gallo’s bestselling wines; a white called Chablis and a red called Hearty Burgundy. The anti-fraud law in France was strengthened in 1908 by setting geographic boundaries to winegrowing areas and stipulating that the wines show characters that were, and here’s that phrase again, "local, loyal and constant." Despite the government’s efforts, fraud continued with only infrequent consequences. One response to the continued fraud was the increased reliance on brands, for example; not Champagne but Veuve Cliquot or not Cognac but Hennessy. The government responded by embracing the concept of terroir. Amy Trubeck quotes the anthropologist Mary Douglas who states, "dirt is matter out of place. Terroir, however, is dirt in a certain place." It was under the guidance and leadership of Joseph Capus, an agronomist from the Bordeaux area and later minister of Agriculture and Senator from the Gironde that the French government passed into law the creation of an organization that would acknowledge and protect the specific flavor of a place. The specific flavor of a place is what makes the difference between an industrial and a culinary potato. The organization that was created in 1935 was the Comité National des Appellations d’Origine. It brought together wine professionals from all over France who would examine the regional requests for recognition and protection. It is important to note that application for recognition had to be made collectively by the wine producers of a region and if granted, the new appellation would be protected as the collective property of the producers, as well as part of the agricultural, gastronomic and cultural heritage of France. After this system of appellation contrôlée was established for wines and spirits, it was adopted for dairy products as well as olive oil, fruit and vegetables, meat and honey. What Joseph Capus brilliantly understood and is at the core of the A.O.C. system is that the specific flavor of place can only be achieved and should only be recognized when the winemaker brings together his or her land with the proper choice of grape type and winemaking techniques to create an expression in the wine that reflects the uniqueness of its constituent parts. It all sounds very Montessori. The fact that Joseph Capus recognized the selection of grape types as the indispensable compliment to the nature of an area’s topography, soil and climate for producing a wine with original qualities, shows his deep appreciation for the intricate web of terroir. The selection of grape types has a lot of relevance today and young winemakers with the intention of deepening the expression of their terroirs are researching and replanting local, heritage varieties that still exist in conservatories and people’s gardens but haven’t been commercially grown since phylloxera. For the most part they are not included in the appellations’ charters. These passionate winemakers are going to the I.N.A.O. and making their case for why these varieties should be recognized and protected within the A.O.C. status. They are linking the past with the present; local, loyal and constant. For us as consumers, we have choices to make, and they do not need to make us anxious. If, as Elizabeth Barham has said, we embrace the idea that the products we consume reveal "what there is in nature to be known" rather than concealing it by viewing nature as an obstacle to be overcome or controlled for production, then we are choosing the specific flavor of place as our road map. GPS be damned.
December 30, 2021 Preview: Vintage Reports 2019 Every year about this time we ask our winemakers to send us reports on the current vintage : events over the growing season, harvest conditions, what's happening in the winery during these early stages. It takes a while for all reports to roll in, which we will eventually compile and publish on our Vintage Reports page. Meanwhile we've received enough responses from all over France, from Champagne, Loire, Southwest, Rhone, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Beaujolais...to post a preview of Vintage 2019. Having heard from wine makers in different regions of France, weather conditions in 2019 were almost uniform, north to south, east to west, having to do with similar climatic irregularities during the growing season. All inconsistant with historic norms. Warm winter and early spring, leading to early bud set, only to be beset by frosts in April and delayed flowering, then heatwaves and drought in summer, somehow miraculous comebacks with needed rains at the end of the growing season, and clement harvesting weather. In general there was a loss of yields but high quality fruit. Climate changes are tangible and posing serious challenges to wine growers who are now needing to anticipate how to adapt their wine growing methods to deal with an erratic and quickly changing growing environment. Notes from our winemakers : L'Yonne Domaine d’Elise, Chablis, Frédérique Prain The year 2019 = a hot and dry year Alas, we had a bit of hail at the beginning of April and again in late April. The hail beginning of May at which time buds were between 1 and 12 cm. With this persistant cold budding was slow, taking through the end of May. The vines were in full flower around June 17th Which put the predicted harvest date at September 25th;Then the heatwave came! Very hot at the end of June: 38°C, beautiful all of the beginning of July and at the end of July, record hot temperatures in Chablis : 42.6°C on the 25th of July. End of August it was still very hot, and above all dry. So the harvests began in the region the beginning of September, around the 10th in Chablis, on the 17th at Domaine d’ELISE! The quality is excellent but its necessary to take note that there a lot of underdeveloped berries that were slightly dried out, and some even burned by the sun. The yields are only 40HL/HA instead of the usual 60. The degrees vary between 12.5 and 13.5, which is very high for Chablis and Petit Chablis. However the acidities are correct, allowing for making characteristic Chablis. They will be for medium term keeping. The juice is already tasting very well : its round and fruited, very agreeable on the palate. Since the year 2000 we've experienced many good years, despite climactic warming. Often with excessive ripeness comes a decline in acidity, which is not suitable for Chablis. Happily, le Domaine d’Elise always has good acidity because of its rocky, very calcareous soil. Savoie Domaine des 13 Lunes, Savoie, Sylvain Liotard The 2019 vintage was the vintage of confirmation for me (my third year), in spite of being a growing season of all possible climactic hazards. We had frost, hail, violent winds and 3 months of drought. I was anxious about protecting the grapes. In the end, the losses were not too bad, (15 to 20%). The acidities are for the monent high, a real mountain wine. The maturities were very good but heterogeneous, resulting in quite a bit of millérandage (mixed sized berries and partial crop failure). The fermentations are quite variable, according to different parcels. Those that got hail are taking more time. I really like these wines to come, I think that they will have great personality. I just finished (end October) putting the wines in tank or in barrel to finish fermentations and for maturing. Autumn work begins, earthing-up the vines, treating of the soils, replacing certain vines and a bit of commerce. Beaujolais Domaine du Crêt de Bine, Sarcey, Florence Subrin 2019, a crop of excellent quality but a small crop as a result of climactic hazards. The 2019 vintange for us will have been remembered by the successive late frosts in the month of April, as well as the hailstorm on the 18th of August. With the very warm start of the growing season, vegetation started early, then suffered the climactic "rewind" of a sudden drop in temperatures in April. Follwed then by a lovely spring and a hot summer, which was favorable to good ripeness of fruit. Unfortunately, the quantity was affected by a violent hail storm in August. Nevertheless, this small yielding season, makes up for itself in quality. Indeed, with such beautiful fruit, very balanced with delicate aromas, we are able to vinify wines that reflect that beauty the of fruit. Entirely hand harvested over 9 days, our 2019 cuvées are showing a rare finesse with beatiful bright "cherry" color, all with no added sulfur other than a minimal dose at bottling to protect them during transport. Beautiful "Natural" cuvées, are equally "Beaujolais" ; they will be released in the Spring 2020. Sud-Ouest Chateau La Caminade, Cahors, Dominique Ressès Here is my first impression of the 2019 millésime. We’ll say that the vintage, started a bit poorly with a spring frost (May 6th), but finished well, though with a reduced quantity, but superior quality than we estimated. In addition, a beautiful, hot and dry summer provided conditions for the vines to catch up on the delay caused by the Spring frosts. Finally, some rains at the end of August and beginning September, followed by nice weather, hot during the day, cool at night, during the whole rest of September, made for a lovely and homogeneous ripening of the fruit. We started harvesting the 3rd of October and finished the 9th, days were cloudy and cool. Today we can say that this vintage will be easy to drink, gourmand, with low acidities and high pH (already 3.6/3.7 before malolactic!!!) Loire Domaine Christophe Thorigny, Vouvray The harvests went very well. The crop is correct with a good quality in spite of the difficult climactic conditions of the year : 20% of vines affected by frost in the spring, heatwaves and drought this summer. Domaine Verdier-Logel, Côtes de Forez, Julie Logel The year 2019, once again, translates as an exceptional year, in the sense that the climate has upset the usual growth patterns of the vine and challenged the wine grower. Frosts during Spring and little rain caused a delayed development of the vines, which only started coming into a phase of fruit maturity at the end of August, which meant the winegrowers had to roll up their sleeves after traditional summer vacations. In the end, the harvest was quite satisfactory concerning quality. Vinification is just now finished, the wines are starting the maturing process and are already displaying a 2019 vintage that is less powerful than 2018, but more typical of the wines of the Forez and express the granite and basalt terroirs of the region. Champagne Champagne Perseval-Farge, Montagne de Reims, Isabelle Perseval Each new vintage is an occasion to write a new page in history and above all to understand new winegrowing conditions in the changing climate. The 2019 winegrowing season was once again quite singular : the erratic climactic cycles meant we had to organize ourselves around spring frosts, sudden unusual cold temperatures at budding and then heat waves during the summer. These changes in weather are recent and their consequences are unknown ; with little hindsight, an evolution is in progress. Each year we have to review the new imprint and rethink our production strategy. The musts are very aromatic, and stimulate the palate. They have fruit, balance, concentration with a touch of liveliness, everything is there. The fragrances emanating in the winery are so pleasant, we can’t wait to taste the first wines. Nature has given us the best, now it is up to us to magnify the fruit of our labor. The Chardonnay has quite particular aromas : complexity, fruitiness, while the Pinot Noir and Meunier are powerful and elegant. The 3 forgotten varieties (Arbanne, Petit Meslier and Fromentot) are very expressive. Their specific aromatic profiles are complementary : they combine freshness, balance, generosity and finesse. The production of the Cuvée Les Goulats remains very limited [1,000 bottles approximately / year] In the end, the cuvées will be a reflection of the winemaker, his passion and his emotion. To that add patience to discover an acomplished wine….. Now it is time that everyone takes ownership of their own Terroir and takes responsibilty and makes decisions to maintain productive vineyards, and bring the quality of production to the highest level. It is our credo and we consistantly pursue this objective. On this note, we have the pleasure to announce that Henry, our second son, has taken his place at the winery and that he has come to observe and assimilate Benoist’s savoir-faire after his wine-growing/making studies in Alsace and 2 years of profesional experience outside of our domaine. Bordeaux Chateaux Barraillots, Margaux, Yannick Martin The 2019 harvests took place in very good weather with grapes in very sanitary condition. It was sunny the entire harvest from September 26 through October 10th. The grapes were healthy and well ripened. Vinifications are almost complete, this week (end October) we finish the juice runs and pressings. The malolactics are also almost finished. In brief, a lovely crop, very good quality and good yields. Rhone Domaine de Berane, Côtes de Ventoux, Bertrand Ferary We had quite a few suprises in 2019. We grow Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre. And for 19 years we have been harvesting them in that chronological order. For the first time Grenache matured before the Syrah. Incredible! In addition, maturities were blocked. One of the causes is that we had the hottest summer in Provence since 2003. The grape skins were very thick, natures reaction to protect the pulp from dehydration, preserving its own production. We did reach normal quantites, with wonderful deep color, with higher degrees than usual. We are performing many "déléstages" (multiple rackings of juice during fermentation and maceration, a process that aerates the juice and softens it by lessening time spent in contact with skins). And, hard to believe, for the first time, our Syrah and Mourvedre tanks have still not finished fermenting in early November. We expect they will have finished in a week. With this careful vinification, 2019 should be an excellent vintage.
December 30, 2021 read the transcript : Ed’s presentation at “Petite Soif” Natural Wine Festival at Vif’s in Fremont, Seattle Drinking Wine and using GPS "it’s not what you think" Thank you to the staff of Vif for the Petite Soif festival and for asking me to speak today. By way of introduction, I can say that I am perhaps the last driver to utilize GPS and I do so with much loathing and suspicion. That might be all you need to know about me. I do admit that I have come around to accepting its role in my life. For the last 21 years, my wife, Barbara, and I have travelled a lot together, both searching for wines in France and then trying to sell them here in the States, and GPS has not only helped us to reach our destinations in a timely fashion, it has completely taken off the table the question of whether or not men ask for directions. GPS is not however, a replacement for maps. Spending hours in a car and having no idea where you are or where you’ve been or where you are going, is at the very least disorienting and more insidiously, fosters a loss of connection – specifically the connection to place. This connection to place is central to what I would like to talk about. In Amy Trubeck’s wonderful book, "The Taste of Place" published in 2008, she speaks in her preface about Maine potato farmers and their struggle to find an economically viable solution that would allow them to continue growing their traditional crop. One of the responses was to grow varieties of potatoes that are classified as culinary rather than industrial. This has many implications, but for the moment, I just want to highlight the distinction between industrial and culinary potatoes. This is something Michael Pollan was getting at in his book, "The Omnivore’s Dilemma". When this type of differentiation occurs with our food choices, Mr. Pollan reports that it causes us anxiety. So, if I may ask: How did you get here? Did you walk or ride a bike, Did you come by car and if so, how many passengers were in the vehicle? Does the engine run on gas, diesel or perhaps electricity? We do have choices to make, and for me, as regards our food and wine choices, the road forward recognizes place as the important anchor and compass. The discerning consumer of 2017 is interested to know about authenticity and typicity, a sentiment that echoes the French phrase "local, loyal and constant." There is a precedent. The ancient Egyptians used seals to mark their closures with information about the provenance of their wines. This practice continued with the Greeks and Romans who marked their amphoras with the names of domains and vineyard sights. This continued through the centuries and in the 18th century official decrees were passed to designate and protect vineyard areas. This was first seen in Tuscany with the Chianti region, in Portugal with the Oporto region and in Hungary with the Tokay region. The next century saw the major classification of Bordeaux estates in 1855 which gave rise to the notion of a "cru". (And no, I do not know the derivation of this term which seems completely self-referential and whose only root means uncooked. I don’t think that Chateau Margaux was calling its wine "raw" or suggesting that the wine should be served with crudité, but who knows?) The end of the nineteenth century was not kind to the vineyards of France and other European nations. They were attacked first by Oidium or powdery mildew in the 1850’s and then shortly thereafter by the aphid known as phylloxera. Both of these blights came from the U.S. By the end of the century the vine growers had found solutions to both problems and restoration was well on its course when as the 20th century arrived, a new blight appeared. It was homegrown and came in the form of fraud, both from the point of view of a product’s contents and its labelling. The wine and food producers looked to their government for help and protection. It is interesting to look at how the French government fashioned a durable response to the concerns of both the French wine and food producers and the French consumer, and in so doing, created a roadmap to deal with the problems producers and consumers face today. A law was passed in France in 1905 that protected against producers who "falsely attributed the location of origin of the merchandise as a way to sell their goods." I find it mildly amusing then to remember how ,when I first entered the wine business around 1980, the store shelves were packed with Ernest and Julio Gallo’s bestselling wines; a white called Chablis and a red called Hearty Burgundy. The anti-fraud law in France was strengthened in 1908 by setting geographic boundaries to winegrowing areas and stipulating that the wines show characters that were, and here’s that phrase again, "local, loyal and constant." Despite the government’s efforts, fraud continued with only infrequent consequences. One response to the continued fraud was the increased reliance on brands, for example; not Champagne but Veuve Cliquot or not Cognac but Hennessy. The government responded by embracing the concept of terroir. Amy Trubeck quotes the anthropologist Mary Douglas who states, "dirt is matter out of place. Terroir, however, is dirt in a certain place." It was under the guidance and leadership of Joseph Capus, an agronomist from the Bordeaux area and later minister of Agriculture and Senator from the Gironde that the French government passed into law the creation of an organization that would acknowledge and protect the specific flavor of a place. The specific flavor of a place is what makes the difference between an industrial and a culinary potato. The organization that was created in 1935 was the Comité National des Appellations d’Origine. It brought together wine professionals from all over France who would examine the regional requests for recognition and protection. It is important to note that application for recognition had to be made collectively by the wine producers of a region and if granted, the new appellation would be protected as the collective property of the producers, as well as part of the agricultural, gastronomic and cultural heritage of France. After this system of appellation contrôlée was established for wines and spirits, it was adopted for dairy products as well as olive oil, fruit and vegetables, meat and honey. What Joseph Capus brilliantly understood and is at the core of the A.O.C. system is that the specific flavor of place can only be achieved and should only be recognized when the winemaker brings together his or her land with the proper choice of grape type and winemaking techniques to create an expression in the wine that reflects the uniqueness of its constituent parts. It all sounds very Montessori. The fact that Joseph Capus recognized the selection of grape types as the indispensable compliment to the nature of an area’s topography, soil and climate for producing a wine with original qualities, shows his deep appreciation for the intricate web of terroir. The selection of grape types has a lot of relevance today and young winemakers with the intention of deepening the expression of their terroirs are researching and replanting local, heritage varieties that still exist in conservatories and people’s gardens but haven’t been commercially grown since phylloxera. For the most part they are not included in the appellations’ charters. These passionate winemakers are going to the I.N.A.O. and making their case for why these varieties should be recognized and protected within the A.O.C. status. They are linking the past with the present; local, loyal and constant. For us as consumers, we have choices to make, and they do not need to make us anxious. If, as Elizabeth Barham has said, we embrace the idea that the products we consume reveal "what there is in nature to be known" rather than concealing it by viewing nature as an obstacle to be overcome or controlled for production, then we are choosing the specific flavor of place as our road map. GPS be damned.