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In the second of our new series of Caterer wine tastings, we take a look at France's humble vins de pays. These have been having a shake-up in recent years, thanks in part to stiff competition from New World wines. But have they really come of age? And do they have a place on a restaurant wine list? Fiona Sims and a Caterer Dane find out
Hands up those of you who thought vins de pays (country wines) are a poor relation to appellation wine. Go to the back of the class. Who thought that vins de pays were just simple, fruity numbers that could be from anywhere? Detention for you.
The term "vin de pays" has been in use since the 1930s, although it wasn't official until 1979. It is legally defined as describing a table wine carrying a geographical indication of the sector, region or département of its origin - a bridge between basic vin de table and appellation wines.
Updated in 2000, the naming guidelines now cover everything from production methods and yields to acidity levels and permitted additives, and vins de pays now account for some 40% of French wine exports to the UK.
And vins de pays do very much have a sense of place. There are three categories, each linked to a specific region or geographical area. The first is made up of wines from a designated area (Vin de Pays de Côtes de Thongue, for example). The second is made up of wines named after their département of origin (such as Hérault). The third category, the biggest, consists of five regional zones: Jardin de la France (in the Loire), Comté Tolosan (Midi-Pyrénées), Pays d'Oc (Languedoc-Roussillon), Comtés Rhodaniens (the RhôneAlpes), and the Portes de la Méditerranée (Corsica, the Drôme, the Ardèche and Provence).
In the Languedoc-Roussillon, for example, which accounts for more than a third of France's vins de pays production (and more than 70% of the country's total wine volume), there's great diversity within the category, with plenty of varietals from Syrah to Sauvignon Blanc, not to mention some stunning blended wines. A growing number of producers are using the looser vin de pays rules to create arguably more experimental wines, making vins de pays an...