Comments on: Sacré Château!

By: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of ...

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of ... — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 12:28:21 +0000

A Rose By Any Other Name

I must be feeling particularly irritable today, because this really got to me…

By: the friendly grizzly

the friendly grizzly — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 01:08:00 +0000

How about the concept of "a man's home is his castle"? I am going to encourage a step-cousin of mine in the Napa Valley to consider this in the naming of his products…

By: andywsydney

andywsydney — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 23:44:08 +0000

The french succeeded in stopping aussie producers using french grape varietal names years ago now (unsure about "chateau" however) – result: french consumers are now extremely familiar with the names of "new-world" grapes (to the chagrin of french poducers!!!)

By: KipEsquire

KipEsquire — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 21:36:40 +0000

DL, I think you're grasping here. "Château" doesn't convey any useful information the way "champagne" does. So there is nothing in the term to dilute.

By: Tony

Tony — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 21:25:04 +0000

I don't drink and I'll happily donate money to build that castle just so that wine exists.

By: Downtown Lad

Downtown Lad — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 21:06:36 +0000

I understand the French here. It is extremely rare for a French wine to use that term, as most wines are not made near a castle. So Americans are totally diluting the term if they abuse this. And I think most wine experts would agree.

It will avoid people getting disappointed if they visit the vineyard and find out that there is no castle there. And drinking the wine will be that much more pleasant if you know there is truth in advertising.

By: dolphin

dolphin — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 20:29:50 +0000

I wonder how their defining "castle."

Were I an American vintner, I'd be getting out my LEGOs right about now.