Types of French Wine
Beaujolais, Beaujolais Villages, cru Beaujolais, Beaujolais Nouveau Beaujolais (French pronunciation: [bo.ʒɔ.lɛ]) is a French Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) wine generally made of the Gamay grape which has a thin skin and is low in tannins.
Bordeaux is the most famous and highly coveted wine blend in the world. Like many wines with a long history, there’s a lot to learn, so we’re here to just cover the basics. While there are both red and white Bordeauxs, the name Bordeaux is primarily associated with the red wine blend.
Cabernet Franc is lighter than Cabernet Sauvignon, making a bright pale red wine that contributes finesse and lends a peppery perfume to blends with more robust grapes. Depending on the growing region and style of wine, additional aromas can include tobacco, raspberry, bell pepper, cassis, and violets.
Cabernet Sauvignon (French: [kabɛʁnɛ soviˈɲɔ̃]) is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Canada's Okanagan Valley to Lebanon's Beqaa Valley.
Other French wine regions with Chardonnay plantings include Alsace, Ardèche, Jura, Savoie, and the Loire Valley. In Jura, it is used to create vin de paille dessert wines. Here, the grape is known as Melon d'Arbois or Gamay blanc and is sometimes blended with Savagnin.
Gamay is a grape that has been around since the 1300s, yet many wine drinkers are not familiar with the name. This is primarily because the most famous wine the grape produces is Beaujolais, the red wine most widely known for the Beaujolais Nouveau craze.
Merlot, which in French means The Little Blackbird, is the second most popular red grape in America It is believed that the first time the grape was used in making wine was in the late 1700s when a French winemaker in the Bordeaux region formally labeled the grape as an ingredient in his Bordeaux wine blend.
Pinot noir (French: ) is a red wine grape variety of the species Vitis vinifera. The name may also refer to wines created predominantly from pinot noir grapes. The name is derived from the French words for pine and black. The word pine alludes to the grape variety having tightly clustered, pine cone-shaped bunches of fruit.
Pouilly-Fuissé (French pronunciation: [pu.ji fɥi.se]) is an appellation (AOC) for white wine in the Mâconnais subregion Burgundy in central France, located in the communes of Fuissé, Solutré-Pouilly, Vergisson and Chaintré. Pouilly-Fuissé has Chardonnay as the only grape variety.
About Sancerre Wine. Sancerre AOP; Location: Centre, Loire Valley, France; Wines: Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir (Red and Rosé) White: 5,436 acres (2,200 hectares) Red and Rosé: 1532 acres (620 hectares) Sancerre is the most recognizable appellation for French Sauvignon Blanc in the Loire Valley.
Sauvignon blanc is planted in many of the world's wine regions, producing a crisp, dry, and refreshing white varietal wine. The grape is also a component of the famous dessert wines from Sauternes and Barsac.
Sémillon is a white wine grape famous for the rich dessert wines of Bordeaux. Find out the secrets to Sémillon wine; from food pairing to where it grows. Sémillon is a white wine grape famous for the rich dessert wines of Bordeaux.