# French keeping the best wine for themselves? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 22, 2010, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-keeping-the-best-wine-for-themselves/540375 "2010-05-22T15:48:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-keeping-the-best-wine-for-themselves/540375/21 "2010-05-24T02:32:12Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > It’s pretty easy to find Gewurtztraminer in the U.S; you’re just not going to find any that are as good as the Alsatian examples you’re used to. Though Navarro, Claiborne and Churchill, and Husch come close, IMHO. I would definitely call some of Navarro’s Gewurtzs, as well as Gewurtz from Domaine Weinbach, Domaine Zind-Humbrecht, Trimbach or Hugel as “top quality.” Lord knows that Weinbach’s Gewurtzs are priced that way… > > Never had a Bourgueil, but I have had Chinon, and I understand it can be tough even for fans to tell the two AOCs apart blind. Joguet’s Chinon is the best wine match I’ve ever had for herb-encrusted roast chicken, and also a wine I’d call top quality. I’ve not had U.S. Cabernet Franc in the U.S. that tasted like Chinon, at least not intentionally. Loire Cab Francs can be a bit…herbal, with flavors you generally don’t see U.S. producers setting out to duplicate. > > For the OP, it’s not pissy-ness or chauvinism that explains the French not wanting to export their best wines to the U.S. Often, the amounts made are so small that it’s just not worth it to deal with the joy that is the BAFTE—separate labeling requirements for one—and finding a distributor/importer. Listen to this person. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-keeping-the-best-wine-for-themselves/540375/22 "2010-05-24T02:55:08Z")
Think about it in terms of beer. There are plenty of great Microbrews in Seattle which you can’t find outside of the Pacific Northwest and plenty of East Coast brews you can’t find here. Arguably, the ones you can find are the more populist, less distinctive ones that have achieved enough mass market dominance to be worth marketing. As a result, through no overt conspiracy, Seattle is keeping the “best” beers for itself. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-keeping-the-best-wine-for-themselves/540375/23 "2010-05-24T15:43:54Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Listen to this person. You’re very kind. Thank you for the compliment. I am not in the business of importing or selling alcoholic beverages. I would really like to hear from any Dopers that are however, and be corrected by them. That said, my reading of **griffin1977** ’s links and 27 CFR leads me to agree with **silenus** that BATFE or DHS are not largely concerned with the content of imported beer, but rather the labeling of the products. [This](http://www.ttb.gov/industry_circulars/archives/2007/pre-cola_eval_beer.pdf) pdf chart lists the malt beverages that require additional information as to their composition or manufacturing technique before being imported. There are very few products that require this additional information. Anecdotally, I’ve consumed more than a few Trappist beers, and I don’t believe that Rochefort or Westmalle make separate nerfed versions within their microscopic production just for the U.S. market. (If so, then I really need to get to Belgium!) U.S. States, OTOH, have their own restrictions concerning appropriate alcoholic beverage for their citizens—e.g. Utah’s prohibition of draft beer over 3.2% alcohol by volume—and the ttb site specifically mentions that DHS/ICE/ what-have-you will not release, within that state, alcoholic beverages that violate the laws of that given state. Oddly, there are new requirements to certify that “natural wines” imported into the U.S. are the result of “proper cellar treatment.” See [26 USC 5382](http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode26/usc_sec_26_00005382----000-.html). Never heard of these requirements before, as well as the requirement that the producer of the alcoholic beverage be registered with the FDA. Wonder what sparked introduction of those regs? Very interesting and I wouldn’t have found out about it absent this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Righteous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Dr.Righteous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Righteous)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-keeping-the-best-wine-for-themselves/540375/24 "2010-05-25T15:59:56Z")
> [@drachillix](#): > > I feel like a wine snob for even having heard this… In the early 1900’s an outbreak of a plant disease pretty much obliterated the French wine industry. Most of it was replanted using rootstock from California. \*\* So the argument could be made that there isn’t much difference at all between the various regions of France and California other than a few environmental variables.\*\* > > [Great French Wine Blight - Wikipedia](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_French_Wine_Blight?wasRedirected=true) While you are correct that virtually all European grape vines are grafted onto American root stock because of phylloxera, it is not at all correct to think that because of this that there is little difference in the wines produced in Europe and the US. The environmental variables aside (and I hesitate to even say that because they are very important - that’s [terrior](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrior) after all) the vines themselves are also different. The grapes produced do not pick up any characteristics from the root the vine is grafted onto. On the original topic - I work for a marketing firm that specializes in marketing wines and spirits. I know of no producer, French or not, who intentionally holds back their best wines from export. They send them where demand is greatest and where they can make the most money from them… which lately is not the USA. China and Japan have become huge Bordeaux markets. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-keeping-the-best-wine-for-themselves/540375.md?page=1)