The world’s wines will always be measured against the enduring varieties of France.
The classic wines from France are like the little black dress: always à la mode, impervious to changing fashions. Like all classics, they are a point of reference, influencing wine styles worldwide.
Perhaps the greatest classic is Champagne. About an hour’s drive from Paris, the chalky soils around Reims and Epernay produce some of the world’s best sparkling wines. Champagne is so popular that demand outstrips supply and the region’s growers are aiming to extend their vineyards to add an extra 100 million bottles a year to the 330m already produced. Apart from the unique soils, the other factor that makes Champagne so special is that it is a blended wine, not only from red and white grapes (chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier are the permitted varieties), but from different vineyard areas. It is this blending that gives the wines their balance, complexity, finesse and capacity to age. The components for the best Champagnes come from the Grands Crus vineyards in Ay, Bouzy, Avize, Cramant and Le Mesnil.
Classics from northern France include two famous white wines from the Loire Valley made from sauvignon blanc: Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé. Unless it is an unusually hot year in the Loire, the wines from Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé tend to smell more herbaceous than tropical. Fumé means smoke in French and the better communes in the area produce a distinctive gunsmoke aroma.
The heartland of the famed Burgundy region is the Côte d’Or, which is divided into two main viticultural regions, the Côte de Nuits, and the Côte de Beaune. The Côte de Nuits starts south of Dijon and is famous for its legendary reds made from pinot noir. The Côte de Beaune lies south of Nuits St Georges and has many notable communes for whites (made from chardonnay) and reds. The Côte d’Or’s best vineyards face south-east with soils over a narrow band of limestone.
The Rhône Valley, south of Burgundy, has notable differences between the north and south of the region. The northern Rhône has some of the world’s greatest communes, such as Hermitage and Côte Rôtie. The top northern Rhône reds have remarkable structure and longevity; the whites delicacy and finesse. With the exceptions of some exquisite sweet wines, and communes such as Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas, the southern Rhône wines are hearty quaffers.
No tour of the classics would be complete without Bordeaux. The second-largest winegrowing region in the world (only Languedoc is larger), Bordeaux produces some of the world’s most expensive and prestigious wines – more than 700m bottles annually. In order to establish a hierarchy of quality in a region with thousands of different châteaux, the Bordelaise set up a five-division classification of the top 61 Grand Cru Classé red wines in 1855. The top Premier Crus (first growths) are Chateaux Lafite, Haut-Brion, Margaux and Latour. The list remained unchanged until 1973, when Château Mouton Rothschild was given Premier Cru status. The other classic wines from the region are sweet whites from Sauternes and Barsac.
Vive la France: French wine picks
Champagne Henriot Cuvée des Enchanteleurs 1995 $265
Made only from base wines from Grand Cru vineyards, this is one of those exquisite Champagnes with the perfume, vinosity, complexity and finesse of a top white Burgundy.
Domaine Henry Pelle La Croix au Garde Sancerre 2006 $35
Classic Sancerre from an excellent domaine, very aromatic and appealing. It smells of nettles, with flinty mineral notes. In the mouth, it’s restrained and balanced with a long dry chalky finish.
Domaine Les Ondines Vacqueyras 2004 $22
This southern Rhône appellation is in the Department of Vaucluse. Predominantly grenache with mourvedre and syrah, its style is contemporary with fine tannins, succulent fruit and a briary, dry finish.
Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard Chassagne-Montrachet 2005 $97
In exceptional years such as 2005, you can’t go wrong with wines from this domaine. Racy and minerally, it expresses the remarkable terroir of this Côte de Beaune commune in Burgundy.
Chateaux Tour de Mirambeau Bordeaux Superieur Rouge 2004 $20
Only a modest Bordeaux Superieur, it over-delivers on quality and is great value. A rich, dense, earthy blend of cabernet sauvignon and merlot with a gravelly minerality and firm, savoury finish.
Source: Qantas The Australian Way September 2008