France - Spare Car Bulbs Rule

[Dragon]

In thirty or so years of visiting Alsace and the Vosges several times each year, we have never been asked to produce paperwork for wine. We always buy from viticulteurs. I suppose we are not driving a white van. Apart from waiting to board a ferry, no-one has ever asked to look at what is in the car or the boot.

[Guest]

40 minutes ago, Dragon said:

In thirty or so years of visiting Alsace and the Vosges several times each year, we have never been asked to produce paperwork for wine. We always buy from viticulteurs. I suppose we are not driving a white van. Apart from waiting to board a ferry, no-one has ever asked to look at what is in the car or the boot.

 

    Lucky you. The power exists-It is designed to control the movement of "untaxed" wine-that is,wine without the tax stamp on the top of the bottle. A viticulteur is supposed to fill in a form stating that tax has been paid(even if the bottle/cubitainer is unmarked), who the purchaser is (address,etc, car reg,date of journey etc-  Classic etat administratif.  Whether producers do or not I doubt- I have only ever known one fill in a form and that was in a much more expensive wine area-Burgundy. (Brouilly) and the viticulteur was pretty much retired.  Further south, nothing has ever happened- Most of our wine is from the Rhone-Tavel, Ste Cecile,Gigondas -bought by cubitainer  and bottled it in the north for storage.. Nor in the southern end of Burgundy-Morgon..My parents-in-law have told me that  Cognac/Armagnac are the likeliest areas for police des frontieres- Cars on German plates especially. With all due respect to Vin d'Alace, bootleg cognac-but particularly armagnac-has always been a problem in the south-west   My understanding of all this is from family members- My wife is French- her family live at the southern end of the Champagne region (10-Aube). Similarly, no stops at Customs-Indeed, Your Humble managed to travel into France via Eurotunnel on the day of the Brixton shoe bomber -everything black alert- without a passport (Stolen-took the paperwork to the British Consulate in Paris)-  Very bored gendarme just waved us through on the English side- they don't usually bother too much with with cars on French plates (A Renault on 60 plates) 

    

         I suppose it/s jut not worth the bother to chase any more. Odd production still goes on- Can't say I have ever had a bottle of ratafia with a tax stamp on it. I can thoroughly recommend the small producers of bubbly around Avize, south of Rheims-good stuff,without getting bilked for the fancy labels of producers more well-known in England.

    

[Dragon]

The viticulteurs do fill in the forms quite scrupulously and we keep the paperwork. I said that no-one had ever asked to look at it.

 

We buy growers' Champagne in the area of Bassuet.

 

There are plenty of viticulteurs in Alsace and the Champagne region who have gîtes or chambres d'hôtes which can be a good way of sampling their wines without driving. After a day walking round battlefields other beautiful sites in the Hautes Vosges it can be very pleasant to come down to the warmer, softer climate of the vineyards and relax with some wine and lovely food.

Edited 3 April , 2017 by Dragon

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Dragon said:

it can be very pleasant to come down to the warmer, softer climate of the vineyards and relax with some wine and lovely food.

 

    At least we can agree on that!!!  My favourite for a picnic is at the papal palace at Chateauneuf-du-Pape- with it's fantastic views down the Rhone.It may come as a surprise but the perfect temperature for drinking a Rhone wine is..... whatever the temperature is on a summer day about 20 minutes after the cork comes out.