A toast to French wines
French wines truly define “wine”. This is perhaps because the best French wines are elegant and complex and still command the highest prices from wine collectors.
French wines rarely give the name of their grapes on the label. One needs to know the wines and wine regions of France. It’s the region that gives its name to the wines produced there. Know the region and you will know what grapes are used to produce wines from there.
So, what are the principal wine regions of France, and what wines do they produce? Bordeaux: Located on the left bank of the Gironde river and on the coast of the Atlantic, about 600 km south-west of Paris, this is the home of the most famous and expensive French wines — mostly reds. Bordeaux is produced primarily from a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, with a bit of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot thrown in.
The best wine estates here had been classified in 1855 into five “Crus” (growths), with five First Growths (Premier Crus), 14 Second Growths, and so on — a total of 61 classed estates. There are some 300-odd estates making wines called “Cru Bourgeois” — essentially chateaus left out in the 1855 classification, some of which make terrific wines. And then there are the wines of St Emilion, made mainly from Merlot.
The top Bordeaux estates are Chateaux Latour, Lafite, Margaux, Haut-Brion, MoutonRothschild, and LafiteRothschild (all from the left bank), and Chateaux Petrus and Ausone (right bank). Burgundy: Some 310 km south-east of Paris lies Beaune, a town on the Rhone river that is at the heart of the 70-km stretch that’s the Bourgogne, or Burgundy, wine region. Wines here are classified into three quality levels; Grand Cru, Premier Cru and Village, with decreasing quality and price connotations. Red Burgundy is produced solely from Pinot noir, and the whites only from Chardonnay — the best of each are amazingly good and insanely expensive. The most famous burgundy is, of course, Romanée-Conti. Champagne: Everyone knows of Champagne, but few know of Epernay, the town at the heart of the region about 150 km northeast of Paris. Champagne is produced by the méthode champenoise — in-bottle second fermentation using a combination of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier grapes. The big Champagne houses include Dom Pérignon, Krug and Moët & Chandon , while the smaller houses would be Billecart-Salmon, Bollinger and Drappier. Chablis: The famous white wine of France, produced exclusively from the Chardonnay grape, classified into Premier Cru and Grand Cru quality levels. The town of Chablis is about 190 km south-east of Paris, en route to the Burgundian town on Dijon. While ordinary Chablis can be thin and acidic, the best examples are beautifully balanced, with a steely minerality typical of the terroir. Top Grand Cru Chablis labels include Domaine Laroche, Joseph Drouhin and Domaine Christian Moreau. Rhone Valley: South of Burgundy lies the town of Vienne on the river Rhône. From there it is 200 km to Avignon along the river, all of it framed by vineyards and wine producers from antiquity. At the northern end are the apellations of Côte-Rôtie (Syrah) and Hermitage (Syrah, Marsanne). Further down come Côtes du Rhône, Gigondas, and Châteauneuf-du-Pape (all Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre and Cinsaut). Well-known producers from here include Paul Jaboulet Aine, Chapoutier and Château de Saint Cosme.
There’s no space left for the wines of southern France — the Provence and Languedoc-Roussillon regions, of which more anon. These are actually the largest wine producers of the country, but less well known. Wines I’ve been drinking: The Bad Boy Bordeaux is a 95 per cent Merlot from the Saint Émilion (left bank) region. Jean-Luc Thunevin was one of the first garagiste producers and was called “a black sheep” by Robert Parker. So he cheekily brough out this label. The wine itself has intense aromas of coffee beans and ripe fruit and a full-bodied mouthfeel with soft tannins. It costs ~4,303 in Bengaluru. Vive la France!