Getting Started With French Wine | Wine Folly

France might just be the most complicated, sophisticated, highly regulated, yet wholly influential wine countries of the world. And what sets French wine apart and France from other countries is if you look at what other countries are producing, be it the United States, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, or even China, they're using French wine grapes predominantly and French wine making techniques to instruct what they make. So to understand French wine is to actually have a better understanding of modern wine in general. So what I'd like to do is to go over the groundwork, the backed out perspective of what is French wine. Let's discuss the regions, the wine grape varieties that they produce there, and what makes them so special. You'll have a better understanding of how to navigate the French wine world and find wines that you like and have better confidence in wine in general. Let's get started with the wines of France. Probably the most important thing to understand about French wine is how the wines are labeled. And unlike other countries which often label by grape variety, let's say it's Cabernet, Merlot, Pinot Noir, or Chardonnay, all French grapes by the way, France actually organizes and labels its wines by the region. And in France they call the region an appellation and in France you'll find about 330 different appellations. The appellation is controlled by a regulatory board which controls everything from the grape varieties that go into the bottle of wine to even how the wines are grown and made into wine. So to understand the appellation is to understand what's inside that bottle of wine. Of course 330 different appellations is a lot to keep on the top of your mind. So instead of like stressing out about that, I thought we could take a backed out perspective of France as a country and sort of see which grape varieties grow where. So France might not be a large country but what we do see is a really big climatic shift from the northern parts of France around Paris to the southern parts of France along the French Riviera and the Mediterranean. And those climatic differences actually dictate what grape varieties can become ripe there and what styles of wines are the focus. So the really cool thing to know about French wine is in the northern parts of France where it's a lot cooler you'll see a focus on white wine grape varieties and aromatics and sparkling wines. And as you move south you'll start to see more and more red grapes becoming the predominant focus of wine production. So instead of just rattling off all 11 major regions and what grape varieties they produce, I thought instead we could sort of build an imaginary case of what wines you should try that really sort of exemplify what is French wine. In fact if that's something you're interested in buying I think we can actually pull this off and put together some kind of a 12-pack with a partnership through a retailer. So if you want to be in on that definitely subscribe either to the channel or winefolly.com subscribe. I will let you know when we have it together because it sounds like a really awesome fun idea to actually go through these wines and taste them together. I want to start in the southern parts of France because we all love red wine and you're going to find a lot of red wines down in the south. In the southern part of France we find these three major regions Provence, the Rhone Valley, and Languedoc-Roussillon. The focus here looking for red blends made predominantly with Grenache, Syrah, and Morvette. Yes they grow a bunch of different grape varieties there and include these also in blends but when I'm looking for red wines down in this area I always see Grenache, Syrah, and Morvette as the focus. So when I'm looking I might look in the southern Rhone Valley there's an area called Dakota Rhone. It has several crews these are fancier appellations that are more officiated and generally considered to be higher quality but then I find great values consistently in the Languedoc-Roussillon. So don't be afraid just to dig around through these different wine appellations to find something that is Grenache based. The second wine that I'd recommend in this actually part of the world comes from the northern strip of the Rhone Valley it's along the Rhone River it's this little hot spot that happens to produce incredible Syrah. Now these wines in this region can be some of the most expensive Syrah wines that we know in the world but if you're looking for value definitely check out Crow's Hermitage or Saint Joseph for great tasting value wines. The last wine that I would pick from this sort of super zone is Provence Rosé. Now if there's any region in the world that just champions Rosé it's definitely Provence. These guys really know how to make an amazing Rosé blend. What I like to look for when I'm digging around for great tasting Provence Rosé is just a little bit of the grape variety Roll. Roll aka Vermentino is a white grape and it adds this sprightly acidity that usually I find some Rosés can kind of fall flat on that I really like to see with just a little bit of Roll or Vermentino in the blend. Bordeaux is the spot where you find Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Now depending on which side of the river you're on you might see a little bit more Cabernet Sauvignon on one side and a little bit more Merlot on the other but what really the focus is in Bordeaux and I really think this is the focus in France in general is this idea that we're taking what's around us and we're figuring out how to blend it together. The French are master blenders if you're looking for Cabernet based wines from Bordeaux definitely look in the Médoc region in those sub-regions within the Médoc or Graves and if you're looking for a great Merlot focused ones these are delicious wines Pomerol or Saint-Emilion are a great place to get started. In Burgundy you will find three major grape varieties there is Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Gamay Noir in Beaujolais. Gamay Noir was actually a sort of hated grape in Burgundy in fact they banned plantings on Gamay Noir they didn't like it they thought it was too bitter but what they found was in the southern part of Burgundy in Beaujolais where they with this grape actually grows there's a lot of different soil types and Gamay becomes much less bitter it becomes more beautiful and aromatic as a red wine and the winemaking practices in Beaujolais make these really juicy fruity fun sort of almost floral red wines that you can try. Now we're moving up more north so you'll find that the wines in Burgundy tend to be much more elegant in style than those wines those richer fruitier wines in the south. Pinot Noir is no exception there is much more focus on this earthy style with cherries and cranberries and hibiscus but then this subtle notes of earthiness or mushroom kind of come through on the Pinot Noir from that region. What I think is really the champion of Burgundy is that Chardonnay is the grape to focus on in Burgundy. Burgundy has the ultimate examples of Chardonnay whether you like an unoaked style or whether you love a little bit of oak in your Chardonnay where it's a little more vanilla and that sort of a thing Burgundy is the place to look for some of the best examples of Chardonnay I've ever tasted in the world. Now that we've become more into the upper half of France and French wine you're going to see a lot more earthy red wines and white wines and I'm going to move over to the west into the Loire Valley to talk about three wines that I would include in my set and the first we're talking red still and that is Cabernet Franc. Cabernet Franc is a very special grape variety in that it can survive in a highly diverse set of climates. The Loire Valley is actually quite cool and the wines there the red wines there come out in a very different style than you'll find Cabernet Franc from anywhere else in the world and the region I look to for that's available most places that makes amazing Cab Franc in the Loire Valley is Chinon. Beyond Cab Franc there are two other grape varieties I'm really super excited about from the Loire actually there are a bunch but the two major ones are Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc. Chenin Blanc I would look no further than Vouvray this is an appellation that produces exceptional examples both sparkling versions and still versions and for Sauvignon Blanc you'll find many regions produce Sauvignon Blanc in the valley including Touraine, Saint-Cyr, Puy-et-Fumé, Quincy that sort of a thing. Keep your eyes peeled and start checking out these wines what's amazing about Sauvignon Blanc from this region is this heightened acidity that comes through on the palate it makes these wines super beautiful and some of them will even age quite a long time. Moving along I've got two more wines on my list on the far northern eastern side of France you'll find the region of Alsace it's actually on the borders with Germany and that area has maybe changed hands a few times between Germany and France and the area because of this lineage is very unlike the rest of France and if I were to pick the most French Alsatian wine because there's a lot of Germanic influence in fact most of the wines are labeled by variety you'll find single varietal Riesling there Pinot Gris and that sort of a thing but the wine that I would pick from Alsace is a blend and that's because I really think the French influence on Alsace got them to sort of start blending their grapes varieties together and these are tend to be more affordable wines from that region but I really think they sort of master what Alsace is all about and there's two wines I might look for and one is Pinot d'Alsace it's all the Pinot varieties be it Pinot Noir or Pinot Gris blended together and made into a sort of white style of wine so they squeeze them off without the skins and then the other one I looked for is called Gentil style blend and it's or Eidelsweiker and they'll blend a bunch of different white grape varieties together and make a delicious aromatic tasty minerally white wine and it pairs really well with Chinese food. Lastly and certainly not leastly I would pick out a bottle of Champagne now Champagne is a region it is crazy cool there in the winter time frigid icy winds and snow happen in Champagne region but they grow three major grape varieties there Pinot Noir Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier and they blend them together squeeze them off the skins to make a white style wine you'll see a couple of different styles there Blanc de Blanc means it's made with all white grapes Blanc de Noir means it's a white wine or sparkling wine made with all dark black grapes but I really like to find a house style that really suits me the best and what I look for when I'm looking for great Champagne is how much time did they put the wine on tirage how much did they age it in their cellars before releasing it and that adds all these sort of bready yeasty notes that are so exciting and thrilling about what makes great Champagne great. So that's my 12 pack for you of French wine and what I would make definitely stay tuned if you're curious to buy that 12 pack we put together I'm starting to think this is a really good idea that we can actually pull this off and in the meantime stay tuned and if you want to learn more about wine pick up a copy of wine folly the magnum edition this is an awesome book to get you started on the right path learning about wine and the fundamentals so you can dig in and dive in and find out more of what you like all right until next time happy tasting peace out