香槟行业的复杂前景

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It's said that children of this country are baptized Christian with water and French with a drop of champagne. But only in this part of east central France can you legally produce sparkling wine and bottle-light champagne. This land, just 83,000 acres in all, is a precious asset. For decades, the size and location of vineyards which can be used to produce champagne has been strictly controlled. But demand is increasing worldwide especially from Russia and China. So for the first time ever, the region's wine regulators have decided to reexamine exactly which fields can carry the appellation, the name "champagne".

There is here a plot, a piece of land, which is not planted. And for a reason that I don't know, the owners haven't been allowed to plant. He has not the appellation. So the experts will go and visit this area and will probably decide to give the appellation to that plot.

It's a classically French exercise. After all, the terroir, the area where a certain vine is grown, still provokes local rivalry, and the decision to reclassify ordinary farmland here can be like striking gold.

If a parcel of land meets 33 different physical and historical criteria, and there seems little reason to believe that if you can grow champagne grapes here, you can't grow champagne grapes there.

If a parcel of land like this one does meet all the criteria then the increase in value could be phenomenal. According to some estimates, a piece of property like this might sell for 200 times its present worth.

But this is a tale of two vintages. In the south of France they wish they had champagne phenomena. Here the problem for some winemakers is lots of wine of not such good quality, too much international competition and increasingly less wine consumption by their countrymen. So while a national governing board will not touch the grand cru, the top wines, it is recommending changes that may force thousands of acres of poor quality vineyards out of production. Someone could get hurt.

I think that will happen but again, er, it’s better to have in the business, maybe these people will be very motivated, very concerned by the job, instead of having people that you must help until their retirement.

In the village of Montesson near Bordeaux, everyone from the mayor on down is concerned about what they call here "the crisis". In the past few years, some winemakers have taken government payments to uproot their vines, and the mayor worries his community will change. His maps show how urban it is already. And more empty land is a temptation to developers. He doesn't want his rural community to go the same way as others nearby. One of his concerns is the Chateau Peron Simon. The Simons have six acres of vineyards which have produced wine for three generations, but now the couple is getting close to retirement with only the hope their 14-year-old grandson might run the vineyard one day, but nothing is sure.

If things were going well in the vineyards, it would probably be different.

Of course, and there would be more people in the family wanting to take over.

And so while some in champagne country may soon be toasting their good fortune elsewhere just finding a way to continue making wine in some of the lesser known vineyards is not easy.

Jim Bittermann, cnn, Montesson, France.