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French Wine Guide

How to enjoy classic French wines - and avoid those that are a triumph of flummery over flavour.

Imagine. You're standing in a wine shop with a credit card in your hand, prepared to pay handsomely for a wine that will impress a host who doesn't know much about wine but is extremely label conscious.

Before you on the shelves are ranks of expensive bottles not just from France but also from Australia, New Zealand, California and Chile. But the likelihood is that it is not the latter you are drawn to but the premier crus and grand crus classes in swirly script. However superior the contents of the bottles from the southern hemisphere, the names 'Chablis', 'Medoc' or ' Champagne ' on a bottle have a far higher perceived value than 'Barossa', ' Napa ' or 'Maipo'. Sad but true. If you want to achieve the status of free-thinking drinker this is a situation that requires work.

THE HARD FACTS

Whatever the skills of winemakers in the southern hemisphere, they have so far failed to cloak their wines in the mystique for which most of us seem so happy to pay. Regardless of their quality, many wines from Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne sell for two or three times more than wines from elsewhere that are arguably much better. What complicates this situation further is that as well as creating some terrible, pleasure-free wines, these three areas also happen to be sources of some of the most magnificent wines known to humankind. In order to defend yourself against exploitation you need to know a few facts:

Inexpensive Bordeaux, Burgundy or Champagne is almost certain to be pretty grim (unless it's stolen). Your money would almost certainly be much better spent in southern France, Germany, Italy or the New World.
It is possible to find delicious, affordable wines from Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne, but it requires a great deal of work - which will be more than repaid with wonderful, subtle flavours that are hard to find elsewhere.
It isn't all bad news. Good-quality Champagne is one of the world's best-value wines - even when it costs as much as a decent pair of shoes.

GETTING TO KNOW THE WINES

For most people the cost of a tasting that would help you explore the subtleties of the finest Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne is prohibitive. Instead you should treat the matter as a lifetime's journey. Bordeaux alone has almost a quarter of a million acres of vineyard and almost 13,000 producers - so it could take you a lifetime just to get to grips with the wines of this region, let alone those from Burgundy and Champagne.

The more you taste wines from all over the world, the greater your opportunities to put those from Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne into context. At their very best, they have a restraint, subtlety and complexity that you will soon discover is a rare quality outside Europe (at their worst you will wonder how they ever found their way into a bottle). They also have a capacity to age gracefully.

However, unlike wine from most other regions, you really have to be prepared to dig deep in your pockets for the best examples. The good news is that Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne by no means have a monopoly on the qualities with which they are traditionally associated. The wonderfully fragile, raspberryish character of fine Burgundy and the cedary aromas of red Bordeaux can now also be found in wines from elsewhere, notably Spain, California and New Zealand. The one exception is Champagne: though sparkling wines from areas such as the Loire, northern Italy and Australia tend to be infinitely better quality than cheap Champagne, it is rare to taste examples that come close to the complexity and wonderful bready aromas of top-notch Champagne.

THE QUESTION OF COST

Although it might appear that producers in Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne are guilty of charging extortionate prices compared with their counterparts in the southern hemisphere, in many cases they have little choice: the inflated price of land in prestigious areas coupled with the relatively high cost of labour and intensive winemaking techniques means that it is expensive to make wines such as these. As a free-thinking drinker, you will have to decide whether it is a price worth paying.


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