Jonathan, I too recently faced a similar (yet different) complicated Muscadet moral dilemma...
While traipsing through one of Southern California's outer burgs going from one place to the other (we do that a lot out here), I had stopped at an AM/PM Mini Mart to gas up the ol' Escalade when I espied several bottles of 2004 Luneau-Papin Cuve Medaillie nestled on the shelf between Blossom Hill Colombard and Trinchero Estate's new Edelszwicker. I purchased a bottle and returned to the SUV's wine salon to do a little instantaneous quality control analysis. Having ascertained that the wine was sound (not to mention delightful and still fairly early in its evolutionary arc), I bought all they had to take home to put in the cellar.
I will admit to be a little pleased to discover that the distribution tentacles of the Louis-Dressner empire were penetrating even gas stations in the nether reaches even of San Bernardino county. I mean, it's not been that long since a request for any Louis-Dressner wine from even the region's toniest wine emporia would invariably be met with a blank stare from the manager and then the question "Dressner? Who's Lou Dressner? He can't be any good if I've never heard of him, because I've been around this business for a long time and I know French wines. What Chateau is he from? Does Southern distribute Lou's wines? If not, then he's probably not a good winemaker. Here, check out this new wine from Duboeuf, it's their special reserve cuve, very exclusive and exotique!") And were I to have the temerity to inquire about the availability of any Cuve Buster, they'd say things like whaddya mean it's got a dog on it? You wanna dog wine? I got your dog wine right here! Check out this Bitch stuff, chicks really dig it. And it's a special cuve, limited in production to only as much as they can sell or find cheap grapes for, whichever comes first".
All was well until I arrived home and discovered that the bottle lacked the requisite Louis-Dressner importer strip. It appears to come from someone called "Transat Trade". WTF? Sounds like the name of a satellite, or maybe the governmental agency that is charged with squirreling Dick Cheney away in case of an emergency. Is this grey market juice? Is it the same cuve imported by Lou Dressner? If it tastes good, am I supposed to enjoy it as much as I might have if it were indeed imported by Dressner? Is this Guy (Azera, the person the label says the wine was "selected by") for real? Maybe this is a tax dodge or some sort of subterfuge on the part of Louis Dressner to not have their good name sullied, lest people view them less-grandly because their wines are available at Arco stations? (it's not as if they were stocking Thomas-Labaille or Radikon, just the Luneau-Papin and magnums of Clos Roche Blanch Gamay).
So, should I drink it anyway and pretend that it's a Louis-Dressner wine or should I cast it out of the cellar and use it for sauce reductions because it's obviously unfit for my needs, not being from the proper importer?
-Eden (I hate it when ethics and the wine business intersect)(not that it happens a lot)
