Blast from the Past: Appellation d’Origine Réglementée par Decret

June 8, 2018 Leave a comment

If you google-search images of old-timey French spirits such as eau-de-vie, various forms of Marc, and old bottles of Cognac, you are likely to come across the label term “Appellation d’Origine Réglementée par Decret.” I have always wondered about this term, but not quite enough to embark on a search for its true meaning. I assumed it was yet another archaic term used sometime and somewhere in the long and ever-evolving history wine and spirits. So be it.

Until…I started coming across the term used on contemporary bottles. For example, while trying to find a bottle of Marc de Bourgogne for sale in my area, I came across dozens of pictures of bottles labeled, as I would expect, with the term Appellation d’origine Contrôlée (AOC). However, I found an equal amount labeled with the term Appellation d’Origine Réglementée par Decret (AOR). Dozens of google-searches and late-night perusals of reference books later, I still was not quite sure what the Appellation d’Origine Réglementée par Decret stood for.

Lately, I have been able to—at least—put a dent in the mystery. Here’s the story, as well as I can tell it:

As we all know, the regulation of certain wines, foods, and spirits were written into the laws and regulations of France by the early 1900’s. According to a 146-page document published by the Comité National des Appellations d’Origine des Vins et Eaux-de-Vie (1946), by the 1940’s a slew of appellations were in effect, including a long list of wine regions that were classified as Appellation d’origine Contrôlée (AOC).

This same document confirms classified status for several dozen distilled spirits as Appellation d’Origine Réglementée par Decret (AOR)—“appellation regulated by decree.”  These spirits include Cognac, eight different versions of Calvados, several versions of Marc, and a long list of regional Eaux-de-vie.

According to another dug-up document—this one authored by the Commission Nationale des Boissons Spiritueuses and titled Abrogation des Appellations d’Origine réglementées et simples—by the early 2000’s, many of the AOR decrees had been repealed, and some had been replaced by AOCs.

However, many of the original AOR designations remain “on the books” and are still in use. These include (at last count) 27 versions of eaux-de-vie, Marc d’Auvergne, Marc de Lorraine, and Mirabelle de Lorraine.

The moral of this story is: you may indeed stumble across a bottle of French brandy that bears the label term AOR—don’t freak out…its not a typo, and its not a fake. It’s a piece of history.

References/for more information:

The Bubbly Professor is “Miss Jane” Nickles of Austin, Texas… missjane@prodigy.net

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The Spirits of Burgundy: Marc de Bourgogne AOC

June 7, 2018 Leave a comment

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Mention the word “Burgundy” to any wine lover and you will most likely be greeted by a dreamy gaze, a loving sigh, and a soliloquy on the joys of satiny Pinot Noir and refined Chardonnay.

It remains a solid truth the Burgundy produces some of the finest, swoon-worthy and fan-obsessed wines on the planet. No argument. However, on a recent trip through Burgundy I was lucky enough to come across some of the brandy, eaux-de-vie (including pear, Mirabelle, and raspberry), and liqueurs (made from currants, raspberries, cherries, and herbs) produced in the region. Many of these products are obscure and many are only available locally (le sigh); if you’d like to window shop, I suggest the website of Distillerie A. Méan.

Another thing I learned is that some of the Burgundy-based spirits are well-known and widely distributed—famous enough in their own right, despite the super-fame of their fermented grape cousins. One of these spirits is the unique pomace brandy of the region, Marc de Bourgogne AOC.

Burgundy is one of the three wine-producing regions of France (the other two are Alsace and Jura) that has earned AOC status for its pomace brandy, known as marc (in French, it rhymes with the English word “car”). As defined in the first line of the cahier des charges for Marc de Bourgogne, it is may also be referred to as an eau-de-vie (Eau-de-Vie Marc de Bourgogne).

Like any pomace brandy, Marc de Bourgogne is produced from the “leftovers” (grape skins, seeds, and stems) of wine production. Marc de Bourgogne may be made anywhere in the Burgundy region, from the remains of any of the grape varieties allowed to be grown in Burgundy (even the obscurities such as Aligoté, Sacy, César, and Tressot) that were previously used to produce wine with a Burgundy appellation. The marc is allowed to be distilled via copper pot stills or short-column copper stills. The spirit must come off the still at a maximum of 72% alcohol by volume.

One thing that makes Marc de Bourgogne unique is the aging requirement. Many of the world’s famous pomace brandies—including grappa—are bottled in unaged expressions, but Marc de Bourgogne must be aged for a minimum of two years in wood containers. Both new and unaged wood is used. As with many French brandies, there is also a list of allowed label designations based on additional age; these include the following:

  • Vieille: minimum 4 years
  • Très Vieille: minimum 6 years
  • Hors d’Âge: minimum 10 years

Marc de Bourgogne AOC must be bottled at a minimum of 40% alcohol by volume.

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According to the Cahier de Charges, about 200 wine growers/producers in Burgundy prepare pomace (marc) for distillation. Of these, about 50 produce their own brandy, while the others sell their pomace to larger distilleries—where it may be used in the production of eau-de-vie marc, liqueurs, or fortified wines. Of the dozen-or-so large distilleries currently working in Burgundy, four of them (at last count) still operate “mobile” distilleries that go from vineyard to vineyard producing spirits. Most of the stills in use are over 100 years old, having been passed down through generations of farmers and distillers.

Marc has been produced in Burgundy (as far as we know) since the 1600’s. The earliest known mention of the product is to be found in a memo (letter) sent to the Duke of Burgundy in 1698. In this letter, known as the Mémoire su l’état de sa généralité, the Duke is informed that the area produces on tire un assez bon grand produit d’une chose qui n’était bonne qu’à brûle—google translated as “a fairly good product is produced from a thing which was good only to burn.”

Suffice it to say that in the reputation of Marc de Bourgogne has since improved dramatically. Most experts will agree that the Marc produced in Burgundy is among the highest-quality in all of France. It seems that consumers agree, as some ultra-aged and high-quality expressions of Marc de Bourgogne can fetch prices as high as those seen for Cognac.

The aroma of well-aged versions of Marc de Bourgogne have been described in terms of freshly roasted almonds, honeysuckle, dried roses, raisins, maple, dried leaves, and oak; typical flavors include dried plum, smoke, raisin, and wood.

The AOC for Marc de Bourgogne was approved in 1942. Marc de Bourgogne is difficult, but not impossible, to find in North America.

References/for more information:

The Bubbly Professor is “Miss Jane” Nickles of Austin, Texas… missjane@prodigy.net

 

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Tales of the Vine: The Hungry Black Rooster

June 7, 2018 1 Comment

The wine region we know as Chianti—stretching across Tuscany from Florence in the north to the medieval town of Siena in the south—is one of the oldest geographically defined wine regions on earth.  Winemaking in this region can be documented as far back as the 13th Century, and the first defined boundaries of the Chianti Wine Region were set in place in 1716 by The Grand Duke Cosimo III de Medici.

Within the Chianti district, a smaller area known as the Chianti Classico DOCG represents the original, historic center of the region.  The wines of Chianti Classico are considered to be the original, historic wines of Chianti and the best.  Winemakers in Chianti Classico guard the vineyards, the wine, and their region’s reputation fiercely.

In 1924, a group of grape growers and winemakers formed a group to promote and protect the image of the wines of Chianti Classico and took as their symbol the Gallo Nero, or Black Rooster.  In 2003 the Italian government gave the group—now known as the Consortium (Consorzio) of Chianti Classico—regulatory control of the entire production of Chianti Classico, and all the wines of the region now bear the symbol of the Black Rooster.

The story of how this famous wine region became to be represented by a black rooster is one of the best legends of the wine world, and goes like this:

The legend of the Black Rooster dates back to a 14th century boundary dispute between Florence and Siena.   After a long and drawn-out battle, the two Republics decided to settle the issue with a race between two knights on horseback.  According to the rules of the match, each knight would set off from their respective home towns upon the crow of the rooster. In other words, the race was to commence—you would think—at dawn.  The knights would travel along the road between the two Republics, and the point where they met in the middle would be the official boundary line between Florence and Siena.

The townspeople of Siena chose as their representative a white rooster.  In order to make him a happy, strong singer, they fed him well and pampered their rooster until the appointed day.

The people of Florence chose a black rooster to represent them, but they fed him sparingly. Some say they flat-out neglected him—so much that in fact, on the morning of the contest he was so hungry that he woke up several hours before dawn, and crowed and crowed and crowed until he was fed.  Thus, the knight from Florence began his part of the race in what was basically the middle of the night. Not surprisingly, he covered most of the road between the two Republics before he met up with the Knight from Siena.

As a result, almost the whole of the land of Chianti was annexed to the Republic of Florence and the Black Rooster, or Gallo Nero became the symbol of the Republic of Florence.  Later, the Gallo Nero became the symbol of the original “Lega di Chianti” in the 16th century and when the Consorzio of Chianti Classico was created om 1924, they chose the black rooster as their symbol as well. Look closely at any bottle of Chianti Classico….you’ll find the black rooster on the label, proudly representing centuries of tradition.

The Bubbly Professor is “Miss Jane” Nickles of Austin, Texas… missjane@prodigy.net

References/for more information:

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