Careful with your AVAs

[Dick Peterson]

One of the earlier posts said,fifty years from now he expects the appellation system to be better or more representative or something like that. I know I haven't quoted exactly but that isn''t important for the point. I believe the opposite will be true. Jerry is certainly correct that BATF SAYS the appellation boundaries are based on soil, climate, etc (everything but political factors) while actually basing their decisions more on political boundaries and political pressure than either soil or climate. "Napa Valley" is a good example, including everybody in Napa County who wanted to be included! Even over in Pope Valley, far from the Napa watershed, they call the wines 'Napa Valley.' That area is so much hotter than Carneros that it is difficult to defend having tham in the same AVA. Yet BATF buckled under pressure and took the easy way out. It's because of these types of BATF decisions that I haven't thought that appellations will be meaningful over time.

But there's a newer reason: Some wines (Chardonnay is a good example) are no longer "Grown" in the original European appellation concept of decades and centuries ago. The Chardonnay you buy no longer owes its style, flavor or quality to the terroir, climate or even clone. Today Chardonnay gets its flavor and style from wine production practices (Malo-lactic fermentation, Fermentation in barrels, Sur Lies stirring, oak chips, oak barrel treatment like 'toasting' and others) -- and not from the location of the vineyard at all. I've tasted as many as eight different Chardonnay table wines from various appellations around the world at one judging that couldn't be identified by ANY of the judges because they all tasted alke! All had the same oaky, M-L, Sur Lies, toasty, fat, flabby taste that completely covered up any residual Chardonnay flavor that might originally have come from terroir.

To me, this is likely to get worse, not better because the nature of competition causes many winemakers to copy each other whenever one style becomes "in" and hot in the market. For example, Chardonnay wines used to be dry. Today you almost can't find one that isn't fairly sweet. That has nothing to do with appellation, it's marketing and I believe the Appellation system will eventually just dry up and fade away.

On thinking about it, I really don't know whether that's a bad thing. What do the rest of you think? Dick Peterson