What's Going On in the World of French Wines

When we talk about the most important grape varieties in the wine world, there is no doubt that when it comes to red grapes, Cabernet Sauvignon is considered the King. Few grapes have proven as age-worthy, as consistently reliable and as downright delicious as Cabernet Sauvignon.

Thanks to work in the late 1990s by grape geneticist Dr. Carole Meredith and the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology, we can trace the origins of Cabernet Sauvignon to a chance meeting in a vineyard in Southwest France between Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc that occurred sometime during the 17th century (sounds romantic, right?). Although there had been some speculation that Cabernet Sauvignon had more …

In the first part of my Burgundy post we discussed some of the history of the region, the concept of terroir (the taste of a place) and the main grapes of the region (Pinot Noir and Chardonnay). In this part, we will go over the main regions of Burgundy and also cover some tips for buying Burgundy wines.

Burgundy can be divided up into several main regions. We’ll start with the northern end of the region, which is where we find Chablis. Millions of years ago, the area around Chablis was actually under water, and today you can still find fossils of oyster shells in the limestone-clay soils of the region. The wines of Chablis are …

I’ll be honest – I’ve always considered Burgundy to be my Achilles heel of the wine world: I love the wines from this region of France and find them completely fascinating, but the sheer number of different appellations and vineyards, as well as producers, has always confused me a little bit. Add to that the fact that I don’t really speak any French, so the names on the bottle frequently don’t sound the same way as they are spelled, and you have a bit of a challenge.

What’s a wine lover to do? Well, for one thing, you can’t let it stop you. You have to bravely plunge right into Burgundy because if you decide to …

There are few grapes that are as complex and fascinating as Pinot Noir. I’ve often heard it said that there are very few winemakers out there who don’t consider it the Holy Grail of winemaking – making good Pinot Noir is a challenge. Unlike Chardonnay, Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir doesn’t seem to accept mediocrity well. It is a grape that is very demanding – some even call it the “Heartbreak Grape.”

What makes Pinot Noir so finicky? Well, for starters, it is a bit of a temperature sensitive grape. It prefers cooler climates and it tends to like limestone soils – two reasons why it does so well in Burgundy. It is also a …