The French regions

If you have been reading this website, you could be forgiven for thinking that I am only interested in Italy – but that is far from the case. Here are the more substantial posts on the wines of France and pages on favourite French regions.

Champagne

• Champagne – grand houses and great little growers
• Champagne scholarship 2013 – how an Italian sparkling wine led to a trip to Champagne
• Avenue de Champagne, Épernay – the Champagne lover’s street of dreams!
• Effervescence – the visual excitement of Champagne in the glass
• Options in Champagne – the growers’ wines of Laherte and Bérêche
• Alfred Gratien – traditionalist on the move
• Blending at Beaumont des Crayères – what a small, special cooperative can achieve
• Ruinart – the art of good company – a grand house with remarkable cellars
• Bollinger – quality in the long term – the factors which lead to consistently great wines
• Aesthetic delights at the Restaurant Foch, Reims – gastronomy that looks as good as it tastes
• Deconstructing sparkling wine – a master class on Champagne styles with Martin Hudson MW
• Ayala and Bollinger for starters – preparing for the trip to Champagne
• Top glasses – a brief stop-over at André Jacquart, Vertus

Alsace

• Particularly Alsace – a tour around the great grapes of Alsace
• Josmeyer: star of Alsace  – a leading producer’s visit to London
• Searching for older Alsace bottles – the fun of the chase

Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé

• Aristocrats and the bourgeoisie in Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé
• Classy Château de Tracy – an ancient château and ageable Sauvignon Blanc
• The exemplary Bourgeois – top quality wines and the region’s ambassador
• Joseph Mellot – a tour of the central vineyards

Burgundy: Chablis

• Chablis home page – basic introduction and visits of October 2010
• Grand Cru Moutonne – photoblog from visit of March 2014
• Jean-Marc Brocard – Chablis on a grand scale
• Vignoble Dampt – family company and a transvestite spy!
• Chablis – all flints and fossils – scintillating, mineral wines at the Royal Opera House
• Christian Moreau at Caviste –  top producer visits Hampshire
• The world’s Chardonnay – a Chablis in the company of the range of Chardonnay styles

Burgundy: Côte d’Or

• Vineyard worship – the first half of this pictorial journey deals with some of the great vineyards of the Côte d’Or
• Albert Bichot’s whites – from Chassagne to Chablis
• Corton in red – a short vertical of one of Burgundy’s greatest vineyards
• Two celebrations – meets five decades of red Burgundy
• Burgundy highways and byways – BIVB’s big annual tasting, 2011
• Meursault Masters – at Corney & Barrow’s 2011 en primeur tasting
• Burgundy at the home of cricket – an unlikely combination of the 2010 tasting at Lord’s under snow
• Something to celebrate: 1990 – why it’s worth keeping some red Burgundy
• Weekend bottles – Burgundy is not just for special occasions
• Red Burgundy’s contribution to European unity – we may disagree about politics or religion …

Bordeaux

• Arriving in Pauillac – Ch. Pichon Baron, December 2014
• Harvest in Bordeaux – October 2014 in Graves
• Domaine de Chevalier – shining knight?
• Recent vintages of Langoa-Barton – an Englishman’s claret shows its worth
• 1970s Claret – old friends reunited
• Bordeaux master class  1 – Martin Hudson MW introduces Bordeaux’s under-regarded whites
• Bordeaux master class 2 – Martin Hudson does justice to Bordeaux’s great red

The Rhône, north and south 

• Syrah spectacular – a memorable evening with Syrah from around the world but the highlights were from the Northern Rhône
• Châteauneuf-du-Pape – world-famous, rich and ripe wines, what’s not to like? 
• Tavel – a famous, old, rosé-only appellation in the Southern Rhône 
• Vineyard worship – the second half of this pictorial journey deals with some of the great vineyards of the two halves of the Rhône
• Rhône varieties, home and away – this does what it says on the ton! 

Roussillon

• Sun, mountains, hills, sea – the wines of Roussillon and Southern Languedoc – the home page for a week of visiting wineries in the far south of France, featuring:
  1. Mysterious Bugarach
  2. Southern Sparklers – Domaine du Fourn, Robert; Domaine Grier
  3. Ancient and modern – Maison Cazes, Domaine Gayda
  4. Mainly red – Lesquerde, Terroirs de Vertiges, Préceptorie de Centenach, Grier
  5. In praise of Carignan – Domaine Roc des Anges, Côtes d’Agly cooperative
  6. Organic and bio – Cazes, Ch. Prieuré Borde-Rouge
  7. Vin doux naturel – Cazes, Préceptorie de Centernach, Lesquerde

• Roussillon – sunshine and big fruit – Jean Pla’s selection from Maury and Corbieres
• The good and the great – reflections on good everyday wine and what a region does best
• Organic Sud de France – should you drink organic wine because it is organic or because it is good?