France is one of the largest countries and has a surface area of about 800,000 hectares. This year, French vines produced approximately 42.3 million hectoliters of wine, ranking third in world wine production.
This short and concise guide collects only some of the famous wines of France:
Alsace
A beautiful region, a flowery wedding favor with views that seem to belong to a country of multicolored half-timbered houses and pretty wrought iron signs, windowsills filled with geraniums cascade and willows which rest in sleepy waters of rivers and canals.
The Pinot Noir
The only exponent of black grapes in Alsace, here does not express the best of themselves, and gives wines with very soft colors, which are usually served fresh and enhance aromas of raspberry, rose and a slight spicy nod. Even if there are some exceptions, the Pinot Noir of this region are similar in character and character to the great Burgundian wines.
Lorraine
is located in the northeast of France, near the border with Luxembourg, Belgium and Germany, and is a small vitinicola region that groups three districts:
Burgundy
In Burgundy, the 120,000 hectares represent a true sample of biodiversity and renewable energy sources, the large pastures for the breeding of the fine Charolaise cattle breed and viticulture has carved out a slice of territory, in which some wines are produced every year they enter by right among the symbols of the French art de vivre.
The pinot noir
A grape that the Burgundian love to be considered native, occupies over 38% of the planted area, with excellent results especially when mature to perfection in the northern part of the Côte d’Or, where on limestone-rich substrates can express allit’s fragrant potential and to give wines with an excellent predisposition towards aging.
The Marsannay
This one is ruby, floral and fruity with tones of undergrowth and leather after evolution in the bottle, it becomes perfect with the guinea fowl in the oven or cheese Ami du Chambertin.
The red Nuits-Saint-Georges
Expresses all the characters of the pinot noir, even if the perfume, although fairly elegant, is not very complex, the taste is a little less robust and closes with a fruity finish.
Jura
Jura Pinot Noir is identified with a slightly pale ruby color, a discreet scent of sour cherry, red currant and strawberry, barely vegetable in youth, while with evolution it is enriched with notes of dehydrated fruit, spices and leather. Delicately structured, these wines express a pleasant freshness over time and a good balance, which makes them perfect with rosemary steak or veal medallions in casserole.
The Rhône Valley vineyard produces about 6,200,000 hectoliters of wine a year, with an overwhelming dominance of red wines, which together with rosé wines represent 87% of production, leaving the crumbs to whites, sweet and sparkling wines. The black grape varieties occupy about 95% of the vineyard area, especially syrah and granace.
Bordeaux
In the cellars of this land some of the wines that have built the legend of French wine rest for centuries.
Merlot gives it’s best in clayey soils, offering wines splendid notes of small red fruits, from raspberry to wild strawberry, as well as an elegant accent of freshly cut grass, softened by shades of violet and minerals, almost earthy.
The Cabernet Sauvignon instead represents the Medoc, where it gives wines with great aromatic depth, a large aromatic and a vibrating kit taste, rich in tannins exceptional elegance, creating merlot with a perfect combination. The scent is dominated by small black berried fruits, cassis in particular, and is framed by the paradigmatic vegetable touch of green pepper and a refined breath of Lebanese creed.
The third black grape variety is cabernet franc, also known as bouquet in Saint-Émilion, where it represents 20% of the grapes grown, while it drops to 15% in Libournais and 4% in Medoc. Cabernet franc gives less colored and less tannic wines.
The Carmenère is a grape rich in history and can offer wines excellent sensory qualities, like a very intense and deep color, a nice fruity complexity and carved from austere tannins and elegant body.