“Do you have any white wines by the glass?” I asked, and ordered a Château Trians, a Coteaux Varois, from the region.
Christine Salsedo seemed somewhat surprised. “Most of the time people drink red with cheese,” she said. “We’re French, so we definitely prefer red.”
Up to a third of wines sold under France's regional appellation system might be from an entirely different region, according to a French consumers' group.
Last year France pulled ahead of the New World at the high end of the wine business for the first time in many years. Can vintners leverage this success?
Better known for its cider and sailors, the region of Brittany can now lay claim to having its own wine following a legal tussle with the French authorities.
More than any other wine region, Burgundy is all about dirt, about climate and how the people use them. Call it terroir if you want, but the complex and idiosyncratic interaction among these three elements is what makes Burgundy tick.
In a bid to rival the Judgement of Paris tastings, a group of wine tasters called the Grand Jury Européen is to hold a tasting of Napa Valley and Bordeaux wines next week.
François Mauss, founder of the GJE, said he was 'not satisfied' by the celebratory 30th anniversary tasting that took place in May this year.
A new country wine category for the south west of France, Vin de Pays de l'Atlantique, will make its debut with the 2006 vintage.
(Vin de Pays de l'Atlantique will cover the départements of the Charente, Charente Maritime, Dordogne, Gironde and certain communes in the Lot et Garonne.)
During a recent trip to the French wine regions of Champagne and Burgundy, I was struck by how winemakers
continually talked about striving for finesse, balance and delicacy in their wines.
"French Chef Raymond Blanc has launched an
impassioned defence of French wine and accused its detractors of being
'ignorant' and 'unfair'. The Chef patron of the two-Michelin-starred
Oxfordshire restaurant and hotel Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons is 'fed up' of
the 'unfair attacks' on his native country and is taking it upon himself to
be an ambassador for the
French wine industry."
A cover story on kosher wine in one of the most
prominent French wine magazines is being seen as a sign of increasing
interest and support for kosher wine in France.
"The concept of a national vin de pays - one
that will allow blending between different regions and which may be called
Vin de Pays de France or Cepage de France - is anathema to many growers."
"Pity the French wine industry. Since entering
the new century on a high with one of the most hyped Bordeaux vintages in
two decades, nothing has gone its way."
From
Publishers Weekly This comprehensive wine atlas leaves no centimeter of
terroir unexplored. After a thorough introduction to France, French
winemaking and the concept of terroir, Jefford (Wine Tastes Wine Styles)
gets to the heart of the matter with lengthy chapters on each of France's 14
regions. Each of these consists of an overview of the region and its
history, profiles of the area's major winemakers, a description of the land
and listings and descriptions of the local wineries. Some of the latter are
lengthy, while others are brief, but all include an address and phone
number, making this book useful as a guidebook as well. Jefford is
refreshingly opinionated: the Loire Valley is in the throes of a "long and
refined stone age," while Zind-Humbrecht in Alsace is the domain "most
emblematic of the New France as a whole." The effort here is encyclopedic,
but the writing rises above the usual dry discussion, comparing the quest to
understand Burgundy to doing crossword puzzles. Even the most matter-of-fact
information is presented with a certain flair: in a description of the Rhône
Valley, Jefford explains that the area's mistral wind is both destructive
and useful, in that it blows away "fugs and fungal diseases." Numerous maps
and photographs-including portraits of the winemakers profiled-and a full
list of vintages round out this entertaining addition to its field.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
An explosive new book on Bordeaux has been
pulled from the shelves after a lawsuit from the former head of Chateau
d’Yquem halted distribution.
Count Alexandre de Lur Saluces, who in May this year was compulsorily
retired by LVMH, the owners of the illustrious Sauternes chateau, last week
issued a lawsuit against the author and publishers of
Noble Rot: A Bordeaux Wine Revolution to stop distribution of the book
in France.
Drinking ‘two or three’ glasses of wine is
fine, the French wine industry is telling drivers – in direct opposition
to a government campaign to reduce drinking and driving.
French wines have been losing ground to the so-called ‘New World’. But one man
has a plan to change that. And he’s has the Jacques Derrida of viticulture on
his side.
Using the proven
Bellucci MethodTM, with (Quietics)TM, readers learn the proper phonetic
pronunciation of more than 15,000 wine names, terms, regions, and grape
varieties in five different languages- French, German, Italian, Spanish, and
Portuguese. With the help of professional language teachers trained in the
BellucciMethodTM, mastering the difficult phonetics of the French Nasal n,
the German umlaut, and the Spanish rolling r has never been easier.
Both casual wine drinkers and more serious wine connoisseurs often stumble over the correct
pronunciation of various international wine names. Now, even the most
linguistically-challenged person can quickly and painlessly reference the
proper wine pronunciation without having to learn international languages,
and can concentrate on any curriculum or conversation at hand.
Decanter contributor Michael Broadbent
gives the gift of wine – six bottles of 1989 Mouton-Rothschild – the top
rating of five stars. He describes its 'wonderful mouth-filling fruit,
with fantastic bouquet and flavour' and says 1989 was 'unquestionably a
great vintage and one which brought the decade to a resounding close'.
". . .French wine exporters are accustomed to hearing about unholy
cocktails that give new meaning to the term "abuse of alcohol" — vodka and
red wine in Korea, cola and red wine in Spain and Asia, cognac and port in
Britain."
