Variability in Vin de Pays

Over the course of the weekend I sampled two bottles both of which were classified as Vin de Pays d'Oc.

The first was a big brand Shiraz (that's right - labelled Shiraz even though it's French) and was drinkable but quite poor - thin, sour and lacking in fruit.

The second was a Viognier produced in a co-operative and that was really good - well balanced and full of flavour and worth more than the £6 I paid for it IMO.

Which makes me wonder several things ...

How much use is Vin de Pays as a guide to quality?

If that Shiraz can qualify as Vin de Pays, how bad is Vin de Table?

Is AC a more reliable guide to quality?

How much use are the classification systems in other countries?

Neither Vin de Pays nor AOC is a reliable guide to quality, particularly the former. At best they both give a guarantee of provenance and of certain varietal and other specifications as well as an indication of potential for quality of that location, e.g. the quality potential of Chambertin should be better than that of Gevrey-Chambertin.

The only real guide to achieved quality is the producer's reputation, e.g. Gevrey-Chambertin from Domaine Armand Rousseau is likely to better than Chambertin from Domaine PipiCaca.

Which reminds me that I heard last week on television that the French consumer magazine "Que choisir?" has done a report on the AOC system. I must go out and get it.

Your wines were different enough that the contrast hit you over the head. What Tim said is quite correct.

Further there can be differences in the same wine by the same producer in the same vintage. This is called bottle variation. It is a very common phenomenon.

Some wine people have even been accused of knowingly released better wines earlier than otherwise identical bottlings later. In the U.S. we have a wine giant called Bronco. They produce some fairly palatable stuff, but also some not so; they are the Two Buck Chuck folks. Recently that wine did quite well in a reputable competition. The accusation was that they sent one of the better bottles (if not a special one) to the competition.