In France..

If you’re drinking someplace, and you’re drinking wine, you may well be drinking wine from France, because unlike here in the New World, the wines of France are usually named for the place from which they come, rather than the grapes from which they are made.

In the Americas, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, wines are named varietally (that is, after the predominant grape in the bottle), or proprietally, like The Prisoner or Conundrum (that is, a random name given by the producer to a blend that will vary from year to year).

Here in the USA, a producer has to put only 75% of the named varietal into the bottle. So, the bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon you just bought, might be a blend of 75% “Cab,” 20% Merlot, and 5% Malbec. 

French wines are typically produced from the grapes we most commonly drink here in America – Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Merlot and Syrah. We can’t cover it all here, and there are some generalizations below, but going forward, you should be more comfortable when confronted with a shelf of French wines or French wines on a restaurant menu.

In Burgundy (Bourgogne) white Burgundy is Chardonnay, and red Burgundy is Pinot Noir. Pretty simple…yes? But to list all of the place names on Burgundy labels would require pages. Here are the most commonly encountered: for whites, Chablis (unoaked only, as opposed to the following, all of which see some oak treatment), Mâcon, St.- Véran, Pouilly-Fuissé, and pricier places like Meursault, Puligny- and Chassagne-Montrachet; for reds, Marsannay, St.-Aubin, Santenay, Rully, Mercurey, Givry; and for bigger budgets, Gevrey-Chambertin, Pommard, Volnay, and Nuits-St.-Georges. 

A French wine, with an avid following here – Sancerre – comes from the Eastern Loire Valley. If it says Sancerre on the label and the wine is white, the grape in the bottle is Sauvignon Blanc (if it’s the much less common Sancerre red, it’s Pinot Noir). If you like Sancerre white, try the wines of Pouilly-Fumé, located across the Loire River from Sancerre, where equally fine Sauvignon Blanc is also produced. 

The red wines of the Northern Rhone are 90% - 100% Syrah, and carry the place names Hermitage, Côte Rôtie, Cornas, St.-Joseph or Crozes-Hermitage. As you travel south in the Rhone River Valley, blends dominated by Grenache with Syrah and some Mourvedre are most prevalent. These wines are labeled Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Gigondas, Vacqueyras, Côtes du Rhône (Villages), Lirac, and Vinsobres. There are many whites produced in the Rhone – see last’s months discussion of Rhone and vicinity whites. 

Finally, for today anyway, southwestern France produces a lot of wines similar to those of the Southern Rhone. Languedoc and Roussillon are the two best known areas. Look for Corbières, Coteaux du Languedoc, Faugères, Minervois, St.-Chinian, Côtes de Roussillon (Villages), and Fitou on the labels. 

Carignan, a grape not widely grown in the US, is a major grape in much of this region, but there has been a greater emphasis on Syrah in recent years. So, many of these wines are Southern Rhones in reverse – that is, Syrah-Grenache blends as opposed to the Grenache-Syrah Southern Rhones. There are many outstanding values to be had from these locales. Don’t be afraid to try them. Bordeaux, will have to wait for another time. Hope to see you soon. Visit us at: www.vinerepublic.com