French wine boss has the bottle to copy New World

The Times, News, p8

From Adam Sage in Paris

PASCAL RENAUDAT is the founder of the most sacrilegious concept imaginable to any Gallic purist — a French wine company that unashamedly imitates the New World.
Opéra Vins et Spiritueux (OVS) aims to win back drinkers in France’s biggest export markets, and notably in Britain, where it introduced its wines this week. If M Renaudat is right, his Chamarré range will be one of the most popular in British supermarkets within three years, rivalling the likes of Jacob’s Creek and Hardys. If not, critics will line up to attack him for flouting some of the most cherished beliefs of French viticulture.
More outrageous still, he developed and named his wines after a long series of consumer tests, thus ignoring the golden rule that “good taste” is an intrinsic, unchanging — and French — concept.

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