Classic Wines

Bullies of Bordeaux, Part Deux

Seems the repeal of the classification rulings in St. Emilion back to the 1996 standings has ruffled the feathers of the TTB (formerly the BATF) here on our shores. Why? Art Resnick, spokesman for the TTB said it was "not a safety issue... we're concerned about consumer deception." So they wrote letters to the French Embassy asking for clarification on wine that is just now in barrel, not bottle. Previous and current vintages have 1) already been sold, and 2) bear the classifications they were awarded prior to all this mess. So the TTB has decided to get worried about wine that will not even see a bottle for another year tops. So? This is just one to file under "watch and wait." Anything already over here is approved, but new labels, new vintages, will be held up. "Without a certificate of label approval, a wine cannot be sold," said Resnick. "They won't make it past customs." So I guess this is just a precautionary measure, but one I can't quite figure out just yet. What is the TTB protecting us from? What is the worst case scenario? So we are supposed to believe that eight well known (and these are highly sought after and scrutinized properties such as Pavie-Macquin and Troplong-Mondot) are going to risk their international reputation, as well as damage their case for inclusion in Premier Grand Cru Classé status by trying to dupe overseas markets with a false label? Seriously, is there any danger of that happening? Does anyone think for a second that any of these eight chateaux are going to print a batch of labels that has a classification they as of yet do not legally have, event thought they probably should? Not a snowball's chance as the saying goes. Look, I'm all for policing brands and making sure a label is true to its contents, but this seems like a huge misappropriation of resources. Why not work catching counterfeit wines instead of putting up a paper tiger blockade on wine that isn't even a finished product yet, and will no doubt follow the rules of the ruling, no matter how much they disapprove. To do anything else would be financial suicide. Can we put some TTB agents in place at auction houses, perhaps put some investigations of importers that bring in wine labeled as French but comes from Hungary? Perhaps some effort policing wines produced domestically that are less than honest? And what about retailers? Wholesalers who employ devious tactics to control a market? I can think of a hundred things I'd personally rather see the TTB worry about than fighting a fight that isn't there. To the eight Chateaux in question: I say go the super-tuscan route. Many thought that such wines would never sell because they would be labeled as the lowest of the low in Italian wine parlance. See what happened there? I say, and of course this is easy for me to say as I sit here at my desk writing this and have no far flung family history or wine-making honor to protect, but nonetheless I say it, screw their classifications. You make a great wine, you will sell it, period. Your in St. Emilion for goodness sakes, you sell everything you produce, every year, and have for decades.