Originally Posted by
magiciansampras
When I was living in France I was told by a Frenchman that the only wine worth drinking was that which was bottled at the chateau. This was years ago and I have been following it ever since, avoiding wines in the store that are bottled by the proprietor or, Heaven forbid, bottled in the cellars.
But am I right in assuming a certain quality from Chateau-bottled French wines? Thoughts?
For many years, even up through the 1960s, many of what we consider to be "fine" French wines like Burgundies and even Bordeaux (although not as bad) were not bottled by the chateau/domaine. Negociants (essentially wholesale merchants) would buy barrels of wine from producers large and small, and then blend (sometimes) and then bottle the wines. So wines from famous producers like Leroy, would actually have different labels with their names on them b/c barrels were sold to different negociants.
Negociants, in the old days, were notorious for adulterating wines with other varietals or with cheaper wines, or "mislabeling" wines (important in Burgundy).
So the idea that wine is "best" when bottled "by the chateau/domaine" was at one time valid.
These days, it's not as important. 99.9999% of the time you are buying a bottle of wine that matches whatever is on the label.