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French Wine Explorers Wine e-Newsletter
www.wine-tours-france.com - December 2003

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

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This month's wine explorations:

Answering Your Wine Questions: Monovarietals vs. Blended Wines

In this new feature, I'll answer your questions about French wine or wine in general.  Just send your question to me at info@wine-tours-france.com.  If I pick your question to answer in the newsletter, you'll get a $100 gift certificate for the tour of your choice.

Harold B. from Teaneck, NJ asks:  Why are some French wines made from a single grape variety, and others are blends of several grape varieties?

It's basically a question of climate, Harold.  North of the 45th parellel (which runs roughly between Bordeaux and Lyon), the weather is cooler than south of the 45th parellel, where it gets quite hot in the summer.  With cooler temperatures, the grapes have distinctive aromas and flavor characteristics, and retain a good balance between sugar and acidity.  With these factors intact, you can use only one grape variety and produce a balanced wine with a definite personality and character.  For example, in Burgundy, the great red wines are made from 100% Pinot Noir, a grape that finds its full expression in this cool climate and takes on the distinctive qualities of the multitude of terroirs in which it is grown. 

In hotter climates, grapes become very ripe, with a lot of sugar and low acidity.  If winemakers were to use only one grape variety, the result would be an unbalanced wine with a lot of alcohol (if there is a lot of sugar in the grapes, a lot of alcohol will be produced during fermentation). To get a better balance, the winemaker needs to blend several grape varieties.  For example, in Bordeaux, the grape varieties used are Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot. Cabernet Sauvignon gives the wine a tannic structure and acidity; Cabernet Franc gives it fruitiness; and Merlot gives color, roundness and alcohol. Also, in a hot climate, the individual grape varieties have less distinctive aromatic characteristics than in cooler, Northern climates, so you need to blend grapes together to get an aromatic wine.  The classic example is Chateauneuf-du-Pape, where as many as 13 different grape varieties can be blended together, each one bringing to the mix its particular aromas and flavor components.

You can learn more about winemaking techniques and the French wine regions on one of our 2004 wine tours.

How much Cabernet is in my Cabernet?

When you buy a bottle marked "Cabernet Sauvignon", is that really what you're getting?  You may be surprised to know that in many countries, the winemaker only needs to include 75% of a single grape variety in his wine to be able to call the wine by the name of that grape variety.  This is true in much of the New World, including the United States (in some parts of Europe and in Australia, it's 85%).  So that bottle of Napa Valley Cabernet may really only contain 75% Cabernet Sauvignon - the rest will be other grape varieties.

How about the vintage on the label.  If you buy a wine marked "2000", was all the wine produced from grapes harvested in 2000? In Australia, only 85% of the wine has to have been made from the 2000 crop, and in the U.S., it's 95%.  The rest can be reserve wine from the previous few years' harvests.

And what about the place the wine comes from?  It's once again 85%. For a wine marked "Napa Valley", only 85% of the grapes have to come from Napa, the rest can come from anywhere in California.  Same is true in Australia.

In France, the 100% rule is strictly enforced for AOC (Appellation d'Origine Controlée) wines.  100% of the grapes have to come from the appellation mentioned on the bottle, 100% from the vintage mentioned (with the exception of Champagne, which has its own very complex rules), and if there is a grape variety on the label (which is rare in France, but does occur), 100% of that grape variety has to be in the bottle.

So is the French system a "better" system?  Many people say that giving winemakers the ability to blend different vintages or different grape varieties gives them the possibility to "round out the edges" of a bad harvest, or bring more balance by blending grape varieties (see above) if needed.  This allows them to produce a consistent product year after year (but do we really want all wines to end up tasting the same?).  Others would say that it's false advertising. They might say that putting "Napa Valley" on a bottle that may contain 15% of wine from another, less-good area, but still charging Napa Valley prices, amounts to swindling the consumer.

What's your opinion?  Let me know, and I'll share your comments in our next newsletter!

To taste 100% Pinot Noir and 100% Chardonnay wines in France, join us for our Burgundy and Champagne wine tour, co-led by Robin Garr of www.WineLoversPage.com !

Tour Updates

We still have room on all of our 2004 tours, but some are filling up fast.  If you're interested in either of these tours, be sure to sign up soon:

  • Burgundy and Champagne with Robin Garr of WineLoversPage.com: 6 places left
  • Best of Bordeaux II (Aug. 30-Sept. 5): 7 places left

If you can get 12-14 people together for a tour, consider "chartering" one of our scheduled tours that still have full availability.  Not only will you have the tour all to yourself, the person who contacts us to make the reservation will get a tour at no cost!  Hurry to take advantage of this terrific opportunity.

As always, if you cannot make the dates of our scheduled tours, we're happy to give you a proposal and price quote for a private, customized tour in the region(s) of your choice.

See our 2004 tour schedule here.

Wine Tip of the Month: Serving and Enjoying Champagne at Holiday Time

The holidays are the perfect time to break out the Champagne.  Here are some tips for serving Champagne to enhance your holiday merriment:

  • Vintage or non-vintage?  Champagne doesn't have to be vintage to be good, and non-vintage doesn't necessarily rhyme with "cheap", either. Many of the best houses make a basic blend of each of the standard Champagne grape varieties: Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay, that is non-vintage and excellent for a festive get-together. Everyone will be very happy with your Billecart Salmon Brut Reserve or your Taittinger Brut Réserve.  
  • Champagne for dinner: as a special holiday treat, why not try a speciall "all-Champagne" meal, with a different type of Champagne for each course?  Start with a dry, light and refreshing Blanc de Blanc (100% Chardonnay), like DeSouza's Brut Réserve as an apperitif.  With your first course (perhaps oysters, a French tradition for New Year's Eve), move on to a more complex, but still light and dry wine, like Moet et Chandon's Brut 1er Cru.  With you main dish (pheasant? goose?), you'll need a full-bodied, complex Champagne like Gatinois' Grand Cru Vintage 1996, a powerful wine made from 90% Pinot Noir and just 10% Chardonnay (the wine has a slightly amber color due to the high concentration of Pinot).  Stay with the same wine for the cheese course. For dessert, try Veuve Clicquot's Demi-Sec with crèpes suzette or apple pie with vanilla ice cream, or with a delicious raspberry tart, Ruinart's "R" Brut Rosé.
  • How about a different bubbly?  All over France, you'll find wonderful sparkling white wines that are just as festive as Champagne, inexpensive, and fun to drink.  Crémant d'Alsace is fresh and light, made from Pinot Blanc and Noir grapes - the ones from Dopf & Irion are quite nice.  Blanquette de Limoux comes from the Languedoc region in Southern France, made from the Mauzac grape - St. Hilaire makes a good one. But perhaps the best non-Champagne sparkling wines come from Vouvray in the Loire Valley, where the Chenin Blanc grape makes a complex, wine with great minerality that, from the best producers, is sometimes hard to distinguish from Champagne (except that its price tag is MUCH lower).  Foreau and Huet make excellent ones.

Explore the beautiful region of Champagne with us on one of our two Champagne tours for 2004.

Upcoming Wine Events in France

  • December 31: New Year's Eve grape-picking, Viella, AUCH (Midi-Pyrenées): he celebrations start with Mass at 17.30, followed by a torchlight procession to the vineyards for mulled wine. The grapes are picked at midnight. For more info: +33 (0)5 62 69 62 87
  • January 24, 2004: St. Vincent Tournant, Monthélie: Founded half a century ago by the Brotherhood of Knights of Tastevin to celebrate the patron saint of winegrowers, this festival is held in a different village in the Burgundy wine-producing area each year and attracts over 200,000 visitors!  For more info: www.tastevin-bourgogne.com, or + 33 (0)3 80 61 07 12

And don't forget all the lovely Christmas markets at this time of year, featuring crafts, wine and specialty food items, especially in Alsace (Colmar and Strasbourg) and in Avignon in the south.

Don't hesitate to visit the vineyards of France during the winter.  The wineries are open and happy to welcome you, and the vineyards are quite beautiful when covered with frost and snow!  We'll be happy to design a customized, private tour for you this winter in the region of your choice.

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Contact Us

I'm always available to answer your questions about our wine and culinary programs, our company, and wine in France in general. Don't hesitate to contact me at info@wine-tours-france.com, or toll free at  1-877-261-1500.

Best regards,

Lauriann Greene-Sollin, Sommelier-Conseil
President/Founder

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Contact us for more information about our wine and culinary programs in France:

FRENCH WINE EXPLORERS
info@wine-tours-france.com
www.wine-tours-france.com
Tel:  1-877-261-1500
Fax: 1-253-423-5316

CCopyright 2003, French Wine Explorers. Articles © 2003 Lauriann Greene.  All rights reserved.  WST #601 903 728.