Wines from France

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French wines are regarded as the best in world, and a thread of this belief is even shared by France's fiercest New-World competitors. Although the winemakers of Australia and California do not copy French style wines as much I know many still consider them as benchmarks.

The great French wine regions are an accident of geography, climate, and "terroir". No other wines making country in the world has such a wide range of cool climates, and this has enabled France to produce the entire spectrum of classic wine styles - from a crisp sparkling wine from Champagne, through the smooth reds of Burgundy, to the rich sweet wines of Sauternes.

Over many centries of trial and error, the French have discovered that specific grapes are best suited to certain soils, or "terroir" and, through this, distinctive regional wine styles have evolved, so that every wine drinker knows what to expect from a bottle of Bordeaux, Burgduny, Champagne, or Rhône, which has been the key to success for French wines.

"France has an extraordinary, and in many ways extremely difficult, position in the world of wine. To many of us, France is wine, and a certain sort of wine, not always the easiest to appreciate but often the most rewarding" - Jancis Robinson