The other day I was standing on a station platform thinking my usual vague early morning thoughts, and I was struck by the appearance of a train going in the other direction: all eight carriages had been painted  a vivid red with the current Côtes du Rhône advertising campaign on its side – the irritating and rather banal hedgehog drawings with the slogan ‘think red, think Côtes du Rhône’. I don’t quite get the connection between hedgehogs and Rhône reds, but someone has clearly been spending a lot of money trying to boost the sales of French wine in response to the popularity of the new world brands. But does such a generic campaign – in effect, using appellations as brands – work?

 I’ll state my position from the outset. I’m not sure that the marketing of appellations is a great idea. In principal, the idea of pooling the marketing budgets of all the producers in an appellation (for one big, visible marketing push, rather than many tiny initiatives) is supposed to benefit all members of the appellation equally.

The principle behind appellations is sound. They preserve the regional styles that have been officially recognized as being the best that the region has to offer, and guarantee authenticity of the product. Crucially, however, they have consistently failed to guarantee quality. Rules governing grape variety, maximum yield, and pruning and picking techniques don’t guarantee quality, no matter how stringent they are.  For example, while lower yields are more or less essential for producing better quality wines, they are not a guarantee of quality. Many producers prune for the maximum permitted yield, and then in a high-yielding year they just leave the excess grapes unpicked. This makes a mockery of the regulations. If you produce 90 hl/ha grapes and only pick 40 hl/ha, you’ve still got 90 hl/ha quality grapes. Even the statutory tasting tests (where they are required) don’t work in practice. No, it’s the dedication, motivation and skill of the vigneron/winemaker that is the key to quality, and this can’t be legislated for. Ironically, the appellation-as-a-brand concept ends up encouraging mediocrity.

French producers are acutely aware of their need to regain market share lost to the new world brands. On paper, it looks like a generic marketing attempt based around appellations will be a solution to their problems. In reality, though, I suspect this generic approach is proving to be an obstacle to raising the quality of the average French wine. The typical consumer thinks in terms of the appellation when buying French wine. I have a non-geek friend who declares how much he loves Volnay, but isn’t aware how crucial the grower is in determining the quality of his favourite wine. In a similar vein, someone recently told me that they’d had a great Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and seemed a bit perplexed when I asked them who the producer was. This concept of the appellation as a brand creates a strong incentive for less conscientious growers to cut corners; it rewards producers who can knock out large quantities of inexpensive Chablis, Châteauneuf, Sancerre, Pouilly Fuissé and Champagne – wines that are unlikely to do their appellations any favours. Of course, within each region there are a few superstars with reputations that mean they can command high prices for their wines, but for the average producer this system gives them no incentive to raise their quality threshold, because even if they don’t they will still benefit from generic marketing campaigns and the cachet their appellation enjoys.