ABSTRACT

During a regular meeting in which they tasted and assessed the evolution of a candidate to the Grand cru label – which requires over 18 months of maturation before selling – wine producers from the Swiss municipality of Fully were suddenly very enthusiastic about their colleague’s vintage: strong fruit and color concentration, deep taste complexity and a long warm finale. All sound reasons of success for a red wine. Then a voice said “this is not our wine”. This single dissident remark broke the sweet spell at work upon all experts’ palates gathered in the cellar. Going back to their glasses, all producers immediately agreed that there was too much sugar hidden in the wine. It did not correspond to what they were used to and wanted to produce, but much more to an actual dominant trend of the market, a taste unfit for the promotion of local production. The producer affected was thus denied the prestigious Grand cru label, and took good note of the criticisms for his next vintage.