![]() You can walk, bicycle, or drive right through the vineyards in Bourgogne! Be careful around chili, if the chili is spicy, it can clash with the tannins in the wine. Try it with a bite of meatloaf and you’ll see why French wines are naturals at the dinner table.įood – Bordeaux wines are classic wines for red meats, think steak, burgers, beef stew. You may decide the wine tastes austere, sharp. This is the taste of tannins, and red Bordeaux wines often have strong tannins. When you taste the wine, you may notice a strong astringent, drying sensation in your mouth after swallowing the wine. Bordeaux wines often display aromas of leather, graphite. Wine – Expect a deep red color, aromas of dark fruit -black cherries, black berries. Emilion AOC occasionally under the $20 mark. You might even find a Medoc AOC, Haut-Medoc AOC or St. Label – look for the following: Bordeaux AOC, Bordeaux Supérieur AOC, Blaye Cote de Bordeaux AOC. Fronsac is the name of the nearby town.īudget Bordeaux (<$20 per bottle in the US) There are rosé and white wines from Bordeaux, as well as beautiful, luscious dessert wines, but we’ll leave those for a future French Wine 100 series post.Ī red Bordeaux wine from the Fronsac AOC (appellation).However, if you look outside the most famous appellations, there are good quality wines that will teach you about Bordeaux without requiring a mortgage. The most famous Bordeaux wines can be horrifically expensive.There are 5 main allowed grapes in red Bordeaux: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Malbec.Bordeaux red wines are blends, typically either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot will make up 50% or more of the blend in the wine.For a newcomer to French wine, do you really want to wait for 10 years to find out if you like it? No! In their youth, they may be harsh tasting (from tannins), and as they age, they gain beguiling aromas and flavors. Traditionally, these wines are meant to be aged for 10+ years for maximum enjoyment. Seems like a great place to start! Unfortunately, there is no such thing as inexpensive Champagne, so we’ll cover that one all by itself in a future installment.īordeaux is best known for its red wines. Rockstars: Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhone, & ChampagneĪsk any wine drinker to name a French wine region and the first words out of their mouth will usually be one of the big four: Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhone (specifically Châteauneuf-du-Pape), or Champagne. Nothing wrong with either approach, they are just two different points of view.īasic versions are great introductions, these are all under $20 If you are coming to French wines from the “New World” (California, Australia, Argentina, etc…), be prepared for less intense aroma and flavor, these are wines to serve with food.Appellation rules can include vineyard location, allowed grapes, maximum yield (tons/acre), and even aspects of winemaking. French wines are governed by the Appellation system, which is a means of guaranteeing some basic level of quality within a defined geographic area.Top rated, famous French wines are extremely expensive, even $1500+ per bottle! However, smart shoppers can find wines from nearby towns for very reasonable prices, so don’t think they are all out of reach.New world wine drinkers find this mysterious at first. Most French wines are named for the town or village, not the grape.Click to Download Your French Wine 101 Cheatsheet Voila! You have a quick 1 page reference to use when in the wine shop or restaurant. If you want to cut to the chase, download the link below to your phone. 2-3x US prices in China or Brazil, OUCH!.2-3x the wine shop price if you’re ordering off the winelist in a restaurant – ouch.All the major wine regions of France (courtesy of )
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