Quarts-de-Chaume – grounds for complaint?
October 2005 – The LayonFollowing the successful challenge by the Quarts-de-Chaume to the new Chaume appellation, the Chaume producers may well have grounds for their own legal challenge to the Quarts-de-Chaume. In 2005 there were 54 hectares planted in the Quarts de Chaume compared to around 70 hectares in Chaume – giving a total of 124 hectares. By my calculation this means that Q de C is not 25% the size of the total Chaume vineyards as it claims but 43% – nearly half! Also Q de C is over 77% the size of ex-AC Chaume.
This is surely extraordinarily misleading. Here are wine-lovers paying high prices for Quarts-de-Chaume thinking that they are buying a small production, exclusive and rare wine. This is clearly no longer the case – there is nearly as much Quarts-de-Chaume as there is Chaume.
The public are being horribly gulled! The producers of Chaume have a clear public duty to demand that the Décret of the 18th February 1950 that established Quarts-de-Chaume be annulled forthwith. They may also wish to refer the Quarts-de-Chaume producers, who sell their wines in the UK, to the Advertising Standards Authority (www.asa.org.uk/asa/).
In place of the existing Quarts-de-Chaume appellation, there will have to be a new appellation – Demi-de-Chaume. There will need to be full liaison between the two sides to prevent appellation creep and to ensure that Demi-de-Chaume remains around 50% of the total planted.
The alternative is that the Quarts-de-Chaume producers will have to uproot some of their vineyard to bring them back to 25%, so 22 hectares will have to be pulled out.
Producteurs de Chaume – aux notaires!
This is surely extraordinarily misleading. Here are wine-lovers paying high prices for Quarts-de-Chaume thinking that they are buying a small production, exclusive and rare wine. This is clearly no longer the case – there is nearly as much Quarts-de-Chaume as there is Chaume.
The public are being horribly gulled! The producers of Chaume have a clear public duty to demand that the Décret of the 18th February 1950 that established Quarts-de-Chaume be annulled forthwith. They may also wish to refer the Quarts-de-Chaume producers, who sell their wines in the UK, to the Advertising Standards Authority (www.asa.org.uk/asa/).
In place of the existing Quarts-de-Chaume appellation, there will have to be a new appellation – Demi-de-Chaume. There will need to be full liaison between the two sides to prevent appellation creep and to ensure that Demi-de-Chaume remains around 50% of the total planted.
The alternative is that the Quarts-de-Chaume producers will have to uproot some of their vineyard to bring them back to 25%, so 22 hectares will have to be pulled out.
Producteurs de Chaume – aux notaires!
