Quarts de Chaume - still no Grand Cru in the Loire valley?

The new regulation contains strict rules compared to the background that you can read in detail here on our website under: “Quarts de Chaume - first Grand Cru in the Loire valley”. The Baumards explain that they did not disagree with the idea of a Grand Cru appellation but the regulation imposed in the decision was “full of contradictions and mistakes”.

The Baumards are known in the Loire region as critical observers of new regulations. Thus, they had resisted the regulations of the Chaume Appellation as early as in 2005 and 2009, arguing that different definitions concerning the amount of yield and the addition of sugar to the must for wines from the Chaume and the Quarts de Chaume appellation would only confuse the wine consumers in the end.

And that is how the Baumards commented their current resistance: “The local producers want to have a Grand Cru at any price. And why do they want to have this? As many of them want to sell their estates, and they believe that their domains are more valuable with a Grand Cru - in other words: they can attain a higher sales revenue.

Not least, these words provoked an angry reaction of their colleagues. Pierre Aguilas, who is wine producer himself and president of the regional INAO committee, explains the other vintners’ view: “There is no doubt, a Grand Cru for Quarts de Chaume is overdue and deserved. Why? Quarts de Chaume is only a part of the Anjou region but it contains excellent vineyards owned by many producers, all of whom have worked very hard along the southern slopes of the Layon in order to raise the wine quality to today’s high level. These efforts that have been made for 20 years here and as well in the rest of the Anjou region should not be threatened by an individual’s egoistic actions and claims.”

Stéphane Branchereau from the Domaine des Forges says: “We have tried to show ourselves conciliatory; for instance, we agreed to withdraw from the experiment were we froze the grapes mechanically and applied cryoextraction (technique that is to increase the alcohol content and to bundle the extracted substances by adding concentrated cold), but this didn’t work, either.” So, the end of the disputes remains open - we will further follow this topic. (red.yoopress)