A radar blip-size Loire Valley sweet wine appellation has become the epicentre of a battle over titles and “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité”. As Loire Valley neighbours reinact the French Revolution, with Girondin supporters of a plan to use grand cru titles pitched against Jacobian egalitarians, I wonder: what is the point of sweet wines, ennobled or not? They make pointless aperitifs - one glass suffices to curb the most insatiable appetite - and the idea they go with desserts must appeal only to drinkers with a firewall against diabetes. Meanwhile, the Loire Valley dispute is covered in The New York Times, which shows there is nothing like a fight to attract attention.
Full article first published in The Connexion (April, 2012)
