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In Europe there are countless wine regions to choose from, so we decided to improve our knowledge of France through wine tasting trips. Here you can find the wineries we preferred.
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Nowadays Bordeaux is still the global point of reference for oenology. The wine-growing and wine-producing region is divided into five main areas: Graves, Médoc, Pomerol, Saint-émilion, Sauternais. Every area has additional classification.
Médoc offers legendary wine estates: Pauillac, Margaux, Listrac. In 1855 was created the famous cru classification, that still today represents a reference point for Médoc wines. The best 60 Château were classified as cru class´ and were divided into five categories (from 1er Cru to 5ème Cru).
A typical Bordeaux blend will have Cabernet Sauvignon as the primary grape (70-80% Pauillac, 50-60% Margaux), Merlot and Cabernet Franc as the secondary grape and very small percentages of Petit Verdot.
Pomerol is home to Merlot, where wines are matchless for body and refinement.
Saint-émilion, thanks to its hilly terrain, is the perfect habitat for Cabernet Franc. From 1954 this area has a specific classification that is revised every ten years. There are two 1er Grand Cru 'A', ten 1er Grand Cru 'B' and sixty one Grand Cru Class´.
Sauternes is a sweet wine known throughout the world. The favourable microclimate of this area influences the development of Botrytis Cinerea, which gives to these wines a unique complexity of aromas..
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Burgundy is the other main wine-growing region of France. It is bounded by the city of Lione to the South and Dijon to the North. Beyond a doubt the most important district is Côte d'Or, divided in Côte de Nuits (with the city of Nuits-St-Georges) and Côte de Beaune (the town of Beaune is the capital of the wine region).
Nowhere does Pinot Noir reach the sublime heights that it does in the Côte d'Or for the red berry vines and Chardonnay for the white berry vines. Côte de Beaune can be a superb source of whites for structure and longevity. Red wines are refined and elegant and their structure is never opulent. The subject change if we taste a Pinot Noir of Côte de Nuits, the home of some of the best red wines (the best Pinot Noir are produced here). These wines are obtained from vines particularly difficult to cultivate which here found their optimal habitat and produced excellent wines as La Tâcheche, Romanée-conti, Gevrey-Chambertin, Clos de Vougeot, La Grande-Rue.
Other important wines in Burgundy are the Poully-Fuissé, the Chablis, the St-Aubin, the Mâcon.. Finally the Beaujolais, where the Gamay vine reigns unchallenged.
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Champagne is the luxurious wine par excellence and it has been copied and imitated throughout the world. Champagne is produced exclusively within the Champagne region, from which it takes its name, by inducing the in-bottle secondary fermentation of wine to effect carbonation. It is a commercial phenomenon: hundreds of bottles produced annually and exported everywhere in the world. The main vines are the chardonnay, the pinot noir e the pinot meunier. The taste of every champagne differs in the percentage of these three vines used by different wineries for their own cuvee.
(White berry) Chardonnay gives freshness, fineness and softness.
(Red berry) Pinot Noir imparts body and thickness.
(Red berry) Pinot Meunier gives the wines fruitfulness and directness thanks to its
contained sharpness.
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Since the medieval period Loira Valley is a wine-growing and wine-producing region with vineyards stretching for miles in the whole basin of Loira river. It is home to Sauvignon Blanc which reach its utmost thanks to Aoc Pouilly-Fumé and Sancerre. In the Anjou region we also find Chenin Blanc, which gives wines of good fineness and longevity.
In the area near the Atlantic Ocean is produced a Muscadet "e;sur lie&equote;. Once bottled this wine has still its lees and it is particularly delicious if tasted with local oysters.
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The Rhone valley is the second region in France for quantity of fine wines produced, after the Bordeaux region. Some of Rhone crus can also compete in quality without fear with Bordeaux crus. The Rhone valley stretches for 200 kilometers along the riverside of Rhone.
It is ideally divided in two parts: the northern part, dominated by Syrah grapes, and the southern part, with smooth wines obtained from Grenache grapes. In this second area we have the famous Chateauneuf-du-Pape, coming from vineries placed on the left riverside, just on the north of Avignon, where the papacy took root in the 14th century and chose Chateneuf as summer residence, promoting the development of vineyards and the production of wine, with a quality rigour that remain constant trough the centuries. To this day, on the bottles there are, in relief, the papal emblem, that is the two crossed St. Peter’s keys: the keys of Heaven!
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The region stretches from the outfall of Rhone to the south of Perpignan, on the Spanish border. The wine growing region is actually composed of two distinct zones: Languedoc, placed on the east side, a mostly level land, and Roussillon, placed on the south side, close to the Pyrenees. Joining these two regions we have the AOC Languedoc-Roussillon area, sometimes generally called Languedoc.
Today Languedoc-Roussillon area is famous for its quality wines, especially for its Vin Doux Naturels. The most famous of these wines are those produced with Muscat Blanc grapes, and the Banyuls, mainly produced with Grenache Noir grapes. Other kinds of wine are produced in this region: the most typical are red wines produced with Carignan, Grenache Noir, Mourvèdre and Syrah grapes (Corbières, Coteaux de Languedoc, Côtes du Roussillon are most famous AOC)
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