Wycliff Brut Champagne

[Jerry D Mead]

I have never argued on behalf of chablis and burgundy, because they are not generic names. They are not universally used and understood terms indicating a particular style of wine.

Re Europe taking these names so much more serious...that and the ban on the use of the "methode champenoise" terminology (ridiculous, by the way) are recent events since the forming of the EU.

And Port...isn't even a place name...it's a name given the wines by the English, much as they called the wines of Bordeaux, claret. Since there is no other single word to describe this style of wine, it seems to me that Port should be the universal generic term used by whomever...and Porto or Oporto reserved for the Portuguese.

The idea of starting to call claret style wines Bordeaux now to give them generic status a hundred years from now is an absurd argument, because once again it could not become generic because there are scads of words to describe red wine types.

Champagne and Port are unique not only in their universal genric use for 150 years or so, but because even if you legislate against them they will continue to be used because there are simply no other words available to replace them. It's the equivalent of trying to get people everywhwere to stop saying "Taxi" and start saying "car & driver for hire." You could pass a law saying that cabbies can't print Taxi on the their cars, but you are not going to stop people from calling them that.

My favorite Champagne/champagne story was at Domaine Chandon in the early days. The VP/GM had just given us the grand tour, emphasizing that they were owned by a French firm, but they weren't making Champagne, or even trying to make a product that tasted like Champagne. Champagne was a place and they were making Napa Valley Brut and that was that. At the end of the tour...same guy says: "Well, you ready to go drink some champagne now?" And he wasn't talking about something from across the pond. Hell, even the champenoise can't refrain from using the term genericly and they themselves use terms with one letter different for their brands in South America and South Africa.

But this is one of those never ending arguments. I well understand the view of the purists. I feel like my position is one of common sense. The French should have fought to protect the name 150 years ago. They still have Roquefort, after all.