Jet-set makeover for unfashionable French aperitif

It is a spectacularly pretty island off La Rochelle, on France’s Atlantic coast; an upmarket holiday destination known for its oysters, vineyards, fish and ability to attract celebrity visitors.
Winegrowers on Île de Ré now hope to cash in on the island’s cachet by adding an officially approved label to the local version of Pineau des Charentes, an inexpensive fortified wine apéritif.
They hope the Île de Ré label will boost demand for the potent tipple, which is made by blending grape must with cognac eau-de-vie.
It has fallen out of fashion in recent years and producers are now counting on consumers being prepared to pay a little more for Pineau produced on Île de Ré and the nearby Oléron. “These geographical denominations will add value to these products,” Pascal Guilloton of the Pineau Producers’ Syndicate told the newspaper Le Parisien.
Ten million bottles of Pineau are sold each year, mainly in France, where it generally retails for under €15 (£12.73) a bottle. Pineau des Charentes is classified as a vin de liqueur and its production is controlled under the appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC) system.
From September, 18 producers on the Île de Ré and 32 on Oléron will be able to include their own labels of geographic origin in addition to the AOC classification as Pineau des Charentes. Production conditions are more difficult on the islands, whose soils and particular micro-climates yield smaller quantities than on the mainland.
“Pineau des Charentes has long been thought of as unsophisticated, the sort of thing your grandmother might drink at the end of the day,” said Gwilherm de Cerval, a wine critic and former sommelier. “But its potential is underrated. Like port, it can be paired with cheese and desserts — and the Ré and Oléron labels could help it to be re-appraised.”
According to the producers’ syndicate, it took four years to obtain permission for the new geographic labels from the National Institute for Origin and Quality, part of the agriculture ministry.
Pineau des Charentes is produced mainly in Charente and Charente-Maritime, in western France. Other parts of the country make similar but less well-known vins de liqueur, such as Troussepinette in the Vendée, often flavoured with pine or pear, and Macvin in the Jura. In Normandy and Brittany, Pommeau is made by blending apple juice with apple brandy.
Pineau des Charentes is named after a 16th-century winemaker called Pineau who put his grape must in a barrel for fermentation, forgetting that he had left cognac at the bottom. When he opened the barrel years later, he discovered that he had unwittingly produced a new type of fortified wine.