A most confusing wine label.
Not to mention that the grapes that go into red wine in the Pays d'Oc are mostly merlot, cabernet sauvignon, syrah, and grenache, none of which are grown around Saint-Aignan. So, some enterprising wine merchant has decided to sell wine to tourists in our region by linking the wine to the zoo. Well, we bought it. But just out of curiosity (and it's not bad at all, it's just not from here). I wonder why someone didn't try to get a local wine maker to sell his/her wine with this label. It would have made more sense, no?
Looks like a commercial deal, to me. There's no address for the domaine "La Bastide". Usually a wine label has an address on it. If you google "domaine La Bastide" there's a long, long list of them. If you add "cuvée Saint Aignan" to the search, you find lots of "cuvée" of course, but not this.
ReplyDeleteWhat is surprising is that none of the local vintners have created their own commercial connection to the zoo. As you say, it would have made much more sense.
Fascinating! One of the reasons why French wine doesn't sell well around these parts is the label. The French label intimidates the usual Yank. They want to know what grape varietal and the title and basically where it is from - and not much else. This label looks 'not French" but I bet it would sell well here.
ReplyDeleteI hate when that happens! I once bought given as a gift "Maine" maple sugar candy, which was made in Connecticut.
ReplyDeleteHow very peculiar. Wine from the Languedoc is very good, and showing up more and more in the US, although as you say it's a good long haul from where you live. Didn't realize it was 400 miles.
ReplyDeleteellen, I should have shown you the back label. There is an address, just north of Carcassonne, and the the winery is called Domaine la Bastide Rougepeyre. But there's no mention of this arrangement or the St. Aignan label on their web site.
ReplyDeletemichael, French winemakers are starting to put the varietal on the label of some of their wines these days. Otherwise, you're just supposed to know what varietals are grown where.
mitch, or buying little Eiffel Towers in Paris that are made in China...
emm, we like the wine, this one and others from that region. Come to think of it, there's not much wine we don't like...