Unbelievable

[Thraz]

I agree with "some" of the appellation restrictions - although I think this case is very different. The winemaker was not trying to get any appellation. He just planted syrah somewhere to make and sell wine. If the wine is bad, it won't sell. I wish the market could decide that, not somebody in a government office. And if the wine is good, well maybe a new syrah appellation for the Loire valley might be created someday. But there is no way anybody in any of these organizations today can say for sure that syrah-based Loire wine is a bad idea - obviously they have not had a chance to try any. I would have been all over this wine (at least to try) if it had reached the market, but I guess somebody in Paris or Tours knows what's good for me and saved me from myself once again.

And as for typicity - well, it's a good thing people were not stopped by that a few decades ago, or there would not be a lot of wine in the new world, if only for the fact that pinot noir in California tastes very different from pinot noir in Burgundy. We would all have missed out if this new typicity had not been invented.

Bucko... Did I walk right into it? My overbearing-French-government buttons are easy to push...