In the larger scheme of things, the amounts in question are small - Joly’s “membership” amounts to a few cents per bottle of wine — but his refusal to pay that says a lot about his perspective. His lawyer was quoted by the British wine magazine Decanter as saying, “producers who have cultivated their vines organically or biodynamically for decades, making wines that reflect their terroirs, see their subscriptions used to vaunt the charms of … wines without any roots, without history.” Joly went on to say that he would create his own group, “to promote the Coulée de Serrant and the principles by which it is cultivated.” Joly told me once, “I don't only want a good wine but also a true wine,” a statement that has gone on to be his mantra.

On the one hand, this court fight is a skirmish, but it points to a larger battle that is shaping up between producers, most of them small, who try to take an individual path within a wine region when the region as a whole wants a more all-embracing (some read “bland”) approach to success on the international stage. Wine regions form trade groups that seek a unified image because it’s easier to promote a single image than to sing the praises of diversity - who wants to have an ad campaign that basically says, “Try Our Wine - You Never Know What You'll Get”?

I wonder though - internationally, Joly is better known and more highly regarded than all the other producers of Savennières combined. Joly argues that he doesn’t want to support efforts to make a blander product and instead of claiming that the rest of the Loire makes a product every bit as good and fighting Joly on quality grounds, the region’s counterclaim boils down to basically saying, “Joly can afford it.” Laurent Menestrau, the president of the Anjou wine federation that encompasses Savennières was quoted as saying, “I don’t understand why Mr. Joly objects to paying the small subscription per bottle when his wine sells for 60-70 euros per bottle.” Clearly M. Menestrau either misses (or just outright ignores) what should be the main point: Joly’s wines sell for that price (much higher than the wines of his neighbors) for a reason. Shouldn't they be trying to emulate him rather than pillory him for his success?