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French Wine Explorers Wine e-Newsletter
www.wine-tours-france.com - Nov./Dec. 2005

Happy Holidays!

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This month's wine explorations:

Debunking Wine Myths
Give a Wine Tour for Christmas
A Very Special Tasting Dinner
Visiting France: As Safe As Ever

Debunking Wine Myths (Part I)

Wine is a subject that inspires passion, and those who enjoy wine also enjoy sharing information and discoveries about wine with friends and colleagues. This exchange of information is for the most part extremely fruitful (excuse the pun), allowing wine lovers to learn from each other and become more knowledgeable about this fascinating subject. Along with the helpful information, a fair amount of misinformation also gets shared, and wine myths are created. Part of what we try to do as sommeliers and wine tour guides is to demystify the often confusing world of wine for our guests. Dispelling wine myths is part of the job, so I thought I'd attack some of the wine myths we often come across, and help separate myth from reality:

Quality red wines are full-bodied and darkly colored. I'm afraid that our friend Mr. Parker has a lot to do with creating this myth. He gave high scores to this type of red wine, and wine lovers jumped on the bandwagon. A red wine doesn't need to be darkly colored or full-bodied to be concentrated, complex, balanced and have a long persistence on the palette (all major signs of quality). Try one of the great Burgundy Grand Crus and you'll see what I mean. Along the same lines is a related myth: Wine should always be fruity. The great enologist Emile Peynaud once said, "if I want to drink fruit, I'll drink orange juice." Fruitiness is a characteristic of young wines; the best wines (and older wines) offer more complexity than just "good fruit."

Sulfites are unhealthy and shouldn't be in wine. Sulfur dioxide is a natural product that is produced by yeast during fermentation. It is also added by the winemaker during vinification and bottling, mainly for its anti-oxidant and anti-microbial actions which preserve the wine and keep it from spoiling. Wine could not be kept for long, nor shipped long distances, without the addition of sulfur dioxide. These days, doses are kept to a minimum, as a small percentage of the population is allergic to sulfites (usually provoking stuffy noses or flushed skin), and too much sulfur adversely affects a wine's taste and smell. The limit of SO2 allowed in French wine is one third less than the limit allowed in the U.S. (thus debunking another myth).

Rosé isn't "real" wine. Rosé got a bad rap because a lot of really terrible and often sweet rosé was made in the past (particularly in the Provence wine region). People didn't consider it "real" wine because it was a byproduct, the result of running off part of the wine in a vat before it turned red from contact with the grape skins, a practice used to concentrate the remaining wine in the vat, which would become red wine. Those days are over now, and dry rosé wines, while not always "great" wines, can be high-quality wines that are created as wines in their own right with their own delightful character.

Good French wines are expensive. This myth is particularly pervasive in the U.S., where most wine shops seem to offer two types of French wine: inexpensive and terrible, or exorbitantly priced (Petrus, 1st Growths, etc.). France produces the greatest variety of quality premium wines in the world, and many are available at quite reasonable prices. I've often been shocked to pay $50 or more for a bottle of California or Australia Cabernet, only to find that is a nice, simple, good quality wine, offering a quality level similar to a good Cotes du Rhone Villages at just $15 a bottle (and there are many fine French wines in the $15-$25 price range). For $50, you can buy a wonderful Burgundy 1er Cru (or even some Grand Crus), offering all the complexity and finesse anyone could ever want in a wine. Great, inexpensive French wines are definitely on the market at better wine stores. Some appellations to try for good price to quality ratio: the best producers of St. Joseph, Cotes du Rhone Villages, Chinon, Burgundy's Maconnais or Cote Chalonnaise (as well as select producers in the Cote d'Or), and wines from the Southwest and Languedoc regions. Discover some of these regions on one of our wine tours in 2006 - see our 2006 schedule for tours in the Loire Valley, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Rhone and more!

More wine myths will be debunked in our January Wine e-Newsletter. Contact me with myths you've often heard, and we'll debunk them together!

Give a Wine Tour for Christmas

What do you give the wine lover who already has every wine accessory, bottle and book on the market? An opportunity to deepen his or her wine knowledge while creating memories that will last a lifetime: a wine tour of France or Italy! We've had a number of clients come on our tours as the result of a gift from a loved one or colleague (what a great retirement present!). And here's the best part: the person who gives the gift can come along, too!

We still have 6 spots open on our June Bordeaux Prestige tour (May is sold out), and availability on our other tours in Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Rhone Valley, the Loire Valley and Champagne. We're also happy to design a private, customized wine tour for you. Whether it's for Christmas, a special birthday or anniversary, or just "because", a wine tour makes a very special gift. Consult our 2006 Schedule or our Custom Tours page for more details, or feel free to contact us for more information.

A Very Special Wine Tasting Dinner

We had the pleasure recently to open some exceptional bottles with a group of wine enthusiasts, including our good friends Don & Petie Kladstrup, authors of Wine & War and a brand new book about Champagne (see below). Here are our tasting notes:

With foie gras, served with dried apricots:
Chateau Climens, 1er Grand Cru Classé of Sauternes (Barsac), 1953: When you taste a great, old Sauternes, you understand that it's really a shame to drink Sauternes when it's young - you miss out on all the complexity and balance that comes with age. Beautiful amber color, and an intense nose with complex aromas of spice bread, dried apricots, dark honey, spices, pepper, white flowers and forest floor. Perfectly balanced, like a great, full-bodied dry wine rather than a sweet one. Luckily, we chose a foie gras with enough complexity of aromas to stand up to this exceptional wine.

With beef marinated in soft spices in a red wine sauce:
Chateau Léoville Las Cases, 2ème Grand Cru Classé of St. Julien, 1997: Deep orange-tinged red, with an extremely elegant and complex nose of black current, cigar, old roses, graphite, menthol and coffee. Lasts forever on the palate, with very fine tannins. Would have perhaps been more powerful in a better year, but otherwise a truly great wine, the best of the evening and perfect with the beef.

Chateau Haut Brion, 1er Grand Cru Classé of Péssac Léognan, 1995: Deep ruby color. The nose is rather closed at this time, revealing only a hint of cherries. The wine opens up more in the mouth, with cigar box and black current aromas. It has a very long finish and we can all sense that there's more depth to come as the wine will age, but not very expressive at this time. Even so, it's still elegant and full-bodied in the mouth.

With a selection of aged cheeses:
La Tache 1992, Domaine de la Romanée Conti: The cork shows signs of seepage and the color is quite light, transparent and terra cotta-tinged red (both indicating that some degree of oxidation may have taken place). The wine has an intense nose of coffee, prunes and old roses. 1992 was not a very good year, and it shows in the tannins (which are a bit rough) and the lack of balance (a bit too acidic). A fairly long persistence on the palate, but overall disappointing. The rough tannins went poorly with the cheese, although the intensity of the aromas did stand up to the rather strong cheese we had chosen.

With a white and dark chocolate cake:
Hutcheson Vintage Port, 1985: Still has the fruitiness of a young wine, with simple aromas of cherries in kirsch, small red fruits and chocolate. Good balance: not too sweet, not too much alcohol, good acidity, very long persistence. A simple, well-made vintage port - the chocolate and fruit aromas worked very well with the chocolate cake.

The evening began with champagne (François Secondé Brut Zéro 1996), to celebrate the launch of Don and Petie's latest book, Champagne: How the World's Most Glamorous Wine Triumphed Over War and Hard Times (right). It traces the history of this turbulent and fascinating region, and includes many little-known facts and amusing (and moving) anecdotes that will keep any Champagne lover happy over the holidays. Available through Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and other major booksellers, for the wine lover on your Christmas list!

Visiting France: As Safe As Ever

Visiting France is as safe and enjoyable as it ever was. This is the good news that we've been happy to report to our clients who expressed concern about recent rioting in France. Although the rioting was certainly unfortunate and worrisome for those who were involved (the majority of whom were in the Paris suburbs - there was no rioting in Paris itself), the great majority of France and all of Paris during that time were as quiet and safe as they have always been.

So if you're thinking of coming to France in 2006, no worries! The incredibly beautiful city of Paris and some of the greatest wine regions in the world await you. Let us know if we can help arrange a memorable wine vacation for you, perhaps with a few extra days to enjoy the City of Light!

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Contact Us!

I'm always available to answer your questions about our wine programs, our company, and wine in France and Italy in general. Please feel free 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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FRENCH WINE EXPLORERS
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