Those AOC Wine Bureaucrats

Are bureaucratic rules wrecking French wine? Mike Steinberger thinks so. Here's what he wrote at Slate.com:

In recent years, (winemaking) stars like Jean Thevenet, Didier Dagueneau, Eloi Dürrbach, Marcel Lapierre, Thierry and Jean-Marie Puzelat, Marcel Richaud, Georges Descombes, and Philippe Jambon have all had wines turned down (for appellation status) for being insufficiently representative of their respective appellations.

So they were: They were excellent wines produced in districts that mostly churn out swill.

This curious trend comes at a time when much of the French wine industry is in crisis, and the economic gap between good producers and not-so-good ones is becoming a chasm.

. . . This much is clear: The system for classifying and administering French wines is broken and in dire need of reform.

The entire article is here.