Understanding The French Wines

The country of France has many wine producing regions. The most famous French wine regions include Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Champagne. France’s other significant wine regions are Alsace, Armagnac, Beaujolais, Calvados, Cognac, Corsica, Languedoc, Loire Valley, Provence, Rhône, Roussillon, Savoie, and Southwest.

The Bordeaux region is one of the most popular wine producing regions and from this region, comes one of the most popular wines in the world. Bordeaux wines are the desire of wine novices and connoisseurs. Bordeaux is the largest wine-growing region in France. Bordeaux produces a wide range of wines, due to the vast area it covers, the diversity of its soils, its mix of climates and combinations of grape varieties. Bordeaux wines vary from dry white, sweet white, red, rosé, claret and sparkling wines as well as Fine Bordeaux, which is a brandy made from distilled wine. About 65% of vineyard owners bottle wines from their grapes. Three quarters of all the wine produced in this region comes from independent wineries and the remainder entrust the task to the 53 cooperative wineries.

Burgundy creates some of the most exciting wines in the world. Burgundy claims to have some of the oldest vines dating from the 500’s that were cultivated by monks. Many of the names of the religious orders became the names of some of France's most renowned wines: Chambertin, Santenay, Pommard, and Meursault. Several of Burgundy’s great vineyards are located on very small properties. Each property is made up of many little, detached parcels of land. Burgundy is the second largest wine growing region in France, after Bordeaux, and is the most complex. Burgundy has 3,500 properties that are responsible for two thirds of the vines planted. The reds of Burgundy are made primarily from Pinot Noir grapes, except in Beaujolais and Macon in the southern part of Burgundy, where the Gamay wine grape is very popular. The best wines produced in Burgundy come from grapes grown in Grand Cru vineyards - the Tête de Cuvée. These top quality areas are found in Chablis and the Côte d'Or. From these areas as well as from the Côte Chalonnaise, you will also find the Premier Cru vineyards, which are a grade below the Grand Cru areas, but still produce very excellent wines. Reasonably priced and exceptional wines can be found from any area in Burgundy.

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