French Bitter Over Wine Study

Not since Agincourt has there been such a threat to French culture from across La Manche. A British institution will this week rubbish France's perennial claim that its unique soil and climatic conditions are responsible for producing some of the world's finest wines.

In a move that is likely to send tremors from Burgundy to Bordeaux, two economists conclude that environmental conditions - or what France's oenophiles lovingly refer to as 'terroir' - is not important when it comes to producing memorable wine.

Olivier Gergaud, of Université de Reims Champagne, and Victor Ginsburgh of the European Centre for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics (ECARES) and the Université Libre de Bruxelles, will present a paper at the Royal Economic Society annual conference in Nottingham based on exhaustive analysis of every aspect of the wine-producing process in one of France's most renowned regions of viniculture, Haut-Médoc.

The academics compared environmental conditions and wine-making techniques across 100 vineyards, including those owned by such revered wineries as Mouton-Rothschild, Latour, Lafite-Rothschild and Margaux, with the prices the vintages fetch at market.

Their findings will not make pleasant reading for those who argue truly great wine is a result of mystical synergies between the earth and the vine.

'Wine-making has become so sophisticated that it can completely shade the effect of terroir, and vines can be grown in almost any place, as long as the weather permits, and the right combination of vines is made,' the pair state before concluding with the chilling observation: 'The French terroir legend obviously does not hold; at least in the Haut-Médoc region.'

The seismic findings are likely to be seized upon by wine producers in other countries who have long maintained the quality of their output is equal to that of their French rivals. But it is likely to be dismissed by France's leading viniculturalists.

Gergaud and Ginsburgh believe their research suggests France's archaic 'Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée' (AOC) labelling system, which favours the country's historic wine-producing regions, must be overhauled.

'AOC laws are too strict. Many exceptional wines such as Daumas-Gassac, produced in Languedoc, are unable to obtain an AOC label, essentially because they use vines that are not in conformity with AOC rules,' they say.

'As a result, producers are forced to sell their wine as low grade 'vin de pays', while Didier Daguenau, who produces outstanding Pouilly-Fumé wines, obtained an AOC label for his worst production, made with bad quality grapes, and which he calls "quintessence of my balls".'