Gosh
. How am I going to be able to bring a focus onto France? Its production makes up 90-95% of my consumption and is incredibly diverse, arguably the most diverse of any country including Italy, the nearest contender in that respect.
To try and coarsely categorise the wine types coming out of France, I see three broad categories - the Atlantic, northerly inland (in which I include N.Rhône) and Mediterranean. Each has a climate type and typical grape varieties and taste profiles although there is quite a lot of blurring between the first two. Vintage variations are much more marked in the Atlantic and northerly inland categories but, with improved husbandry in the vineyards and techniques in the wine-making cellars, much less so quality-wise than a few decades ago. As recently as the 1960s, most Bordeaux in 63, 65, 68 and perhaps 69 were a complete write-off, whereas in the 2000s no vintages were as poor as those.
International grape varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon and Franc, Merlot, Malbec, Chenin blanc, Sauvignon blanc, Sémillon, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Syrah and Gamay all made their name in specific French places for centuries before they were exported to other countries. The rise of Mediterranean varieties like Grenache, Carignan and Mourvèdre was shared with Spain and Italy and Riesling with Germany and Austria. However one of the fascinations of the French wine scene, Italy’s and Spain’s too, is the number of lesser known local grape varieties associated distinct regions. The South-West is rich is these, e.g. Tannat and Madiran, G&P Manseng and Jurançon, Mansois and Marcillac, and Savoie too with several grape varieties all its own.
In general fine French wines are labelled by place names (AOP protected) rather than by grape variety and French consumers are familiar with the taste associated with those places. Alsace is an exception to this although there is an attempt there to bring increasing prominence to the GC and
lieu-dit place names.
Vins de cépage (=varietal wines) is a pejorative term for French consumers and is generally associated with mass consumption down-market wines but it should be noted that grape names are creeping onto back and front labels of AOP wines in addition to the place names even where the association of grape with place is known to most French consumers. In some areas, particularly Languedoc and Roussillon, a lot of wines are being produced without AOP place names using grape varieties not authorised in the AOP; grape varieties nearly always appear on the label in these cases.
With this Wine “Focus” topic, I will try to confine my posts to bottles which seem to me to illustrate certain features of French wine production, especially the Atlantic, northerly inland and Mediterranean categories.
Last edited by Tim York on Tue Dec 05, 2017 7:46 am, edited 1 time in total.