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French Wine Explorers Wine e-Newsletter
www.wine-tours-france.com - July/August 2006

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This month's wine explorations:

Negociant vs. Domaine: Who Makes Better Wines?
Don't Miss Great Estates of Bordeaux This September
Wine Tasting: Tasting Older Wines
The Pleasures of Being an FWE Repeat Client

Bonjour from Paris!

It's been swelteringly hot here for the past month. The heat has been hard on us humans but excellent for the vines, which are developing at an almost alarming rate. Jean-Pierre and I were in Beaujolais Villages last week, and some of the grapes were already turning color (the veraison, which usually doesn't happen until August). Water rationing has just been announced, and winegrowers are concerned that the vines may stop growing due to the dry conditions. Will the 2006 harvest be ruined by drought, or will it turn out to be another exceptional vintage? No one can say right now.

In this heat, Parisians are downing chilled rose wines to quench their thirsts. Pink wines have definitely made a huge comeback here! I hope that the weather is cooler where you are, but if not, pick up a Cotes de Provence, Cote du Rhone or Bandol rose, chill it, and then take a trip to France in your imagination as you read our Newsletter today. I hope it will inspire you to make that trip a reality sometime soon!

A bientot,

Lauriann Greene-Sollin, Sommelier-Conseil
President/Founder

Negociant vs. Domaine: Who Makes Better Wines?

In the U.S. and in much of New World winemaking, estates are free to make their wine using grapes grown on their own land or grapes they have bought from other winegrowers. Whether the grapes were estate-grown or not is most often not mentioned on the label. This is not the case in France, where the government feels it is important to tell the consumer who grew the grapes used in a wine they buy. Those who buy grapes or wine to sell under their own label have to register with the government as "negociants" (wine merchants), and those who sell wines made from grapes they grow are called "domaines" (estates) or "chateaux" (castles). It's part of a complex system called "tracabilite" ("traceability" in English), which enables the government to trace every step of the winegrowing and winemaking process, from the chemicals used on the vines to the grapes that are harvested to the winemaking process and the final product. This is done for qualitative purposes, and to ensure that laws governing wine production are being obeyed. In a country where the utmost importance is placed on the place of origin of the grapes, it's important to carefully monitor who is bringing in grapes and from where. Of course, this practice also enables the government to tax the winemakers based on the provenance of their grapes!

There are negociant firms in every wine region of France, but some regions are more dependent on this system than others. In Beaujolais , for example, 80% of the region's wines are labeled and sold by negociants. The most famous is Georges Duboeuf. Nearly every small domaine in Beaujolais sells at least part of their grapes or wine to the Duboeuf firm, which then blends it with wine from other domaines and bottles and sells the blends under the famous Duboeuf flower labels. Although technically part of Burgundy, Beaujolais wines have never enjoyed the same notoriety as Burgundy wines, and were usually sold as a basic table wine in bistrots and cafes - even today, they sell at low prices despite their quality. After all the expense of grape growing, harvesting and vinification, selling to the negociants right after harvest or vinification has always brought in needed cash flow for local winemakers. While Beaujolais has the highest percentage of wine sold by negociants, all of the French wine regions depend on negociants to some extent.

In Bordeaux, the word "negociant" is used in two different ways. As in Beaujolais, there are negociants that buy grapes or wines, blend them together and sell them under their own label: the company Baron Philippe de Rothschild, makers of Mouton Cadet, is a prime example. Up until the 1970's, all Bordeaux's negociant firms (among the wealthiest and most powerful in France) also bought the wines of the great Classified Growths, aged them in their own warehouses, and then sold them all over the world, affixing both the label of the Chateau AND the label of the negociant to the bottle. Since that time, all of the finest chateaux now age and bottle their entire production themselves, and the negociants have become agents who sell wines to retailers and importers.

Champagne is probably the greatest example of the negociant system. The great Champagne houses buy grapes from all over the Champagne region, and blend them together to create their different "cuvees." This system has allowed small winegrowers, some of whom also bottle their own estate-grown Champagnes, to survive over the years. It allows the large houses to obtain enough grapes to make millions of bottles of Champagne each year and satisfy the ever-growing demand for Champagne throughout the world.

What further complicates the issue is that many negociants also own vineyard land and produce wines made from grapes grown on their land. To determine the provenance of the grapes in a particular wine, take a close look at the label. If the wine was produced from estate-grown grapes, the word "Chateau," "Domaine," "Clos" or "Mas" will most often precede the family name of the producer (e.g., Domaine Leflaive). If you see only a family or brand name, or the word "Maison" (house of), "Etablissement" or "Societe" (both mean "company") before it (e.g., Maison Leflaive), then the wine was made by a negociant from bought grapes or wine.

So which taste better, wines from negociants, or wines made from estate-grown grapes? Certainly one can say that a small domaine has control over every aspect of winegrowing and subsequent winemaking, so the wines produced should be of higher quality than a negociant can produce. For a company that has its own vineyards and also buys grapes, their "domaine" wines are often produced from the best parcels of land where the greatest pains have been taken, and the "negociant" wines are the company's more generic or lesser-quality wines. These days, however, the best negociant firms work hand-in-hand with their wine growers to ensure that the highest-quality viticultural practices are maintained, to ensure the quality of their wines. As always, your palate is the best judge. Some of the best negociants include Chapoutier, Guigal and Les Vins de Vienne in the Rhone Valley, Maison Latour, Bouchard Pere et Fils and Maison Leflaive in Burgundy, and Maisons Hugel and Trimbach in Alsace.

We include the best negociants and domaines on our scheduled and private, customized wine tours, particularly in Burgundy and the Rhone Valley. Join us and judge for yourself!

Don't Miss Great Estates of Bordeaux, September 4-9

Only 4 spots remain on this ever-popular tour. Everyone is talking about the 2005 vintage, considered one of the greatest of the past 100 years. But will the 2006 vintage be as good? Join us this September as we visit the Bordeaux vineyards (Sept. 4-9) on the cusp of the new harvest, to experience the excitement of these prestigious vineyards at this all-important time of year.

First Growths like Mouton Rothschild and Latour open their doors for you for exclusive tastings and in-depth tours of their amazing facilities. You'll see all sides of Bordeaux winemaking on this tour, from a top-notch "garage" producer to one of the best Cru Bourgeois, to the most famous Classified Growths. Your luxury accommodations are at Bordeaux's best Relais & Chateau hotels, with dining at the region's finest Michelin-starred restaurants.

With the heat wave we've had in France these past two months, excitement is building that this could be another fantastic vintage. In fact, it's been so hot that they're predicting an earlier than usual start for the harvest, so we may get to see the grapes come in and participate in the bustle and anticipation of harvest-time on our tour!

Enjoy expert guidance from your own private sommelier throughout your tour, and of course, French Wine Explorers' trademark superlative service from reservation to the final "Au Revoir". Spaces are still available, so see our Bordeaux wine tours page for more information, or feel free to contact us by email or call us (toll free U.S. & Canada) at 1-877-261-1500.

Wine Tasting: Tasting Older Wines

In the past, it was common to cellar wines and wait for them to mature before drinking them. These days, few people have cellars in their homes, and we tend to drink wines while they're still young and fruity. With our palates so used to fresh fruit flavors and aromas and our eyes used to seeing ruby red or light yellow colors, older wines can be challenging to taste and judge.

The first thing to notice is the color. Red wines, as they age, lose their ruby, pink- or violet-tinged color and veer first toward a true "tomato" red, then toward orange-tinged or even brick (brown) red when they are quite old. For red wines, the color may be lighter, less intense than they were in their youth. The sediment at the bottom of the bottle is the reason - over time, the color molecules combine with the tannins in the wine, and they fall to the bottom, creating the sediment or deposit. The tannins become rounder as a result, but some color is lost at the same time. White wines become a deeper yellow as they age, and sweet white wines can even become amber over the years. An amber color for a white wine, or a brick red color for a red wine, is not necessarily a sign that the wine is too old and undrinkable; you really need to taste the wine to make that judgment.

As wines age, fruity aromas tend to recede, and are replaced by aromas associated with aging called "tertiary" aromas. These include cooked or dried fruits, forest floor smells like dried leaves or mushrooms, mineral, "earthy" aromas, or leathery, even barnyard types of aromas. When drinking fine older wines, you'll often notice that the aromas are less easy to pick out than they are in young wines. The bouquet becomes more unified, a wash of aroma that is harmonious and often hard to describe in words. The experience on the palate is similar: instead of tasting the alcohol, tannins, acidity and fruit separately, these elements melt together into a unified taste. It is exactly this harmony that wine lovers seek in older wines, and that makes all the time spent in the cellar worthwhile.

Of course, "older" is a relative term. Some wines can be old at 5 years, others stay fresh and youthful for decades. Also remember that wines do not become complex or develop better tannins with aging. A wine has start out being complex with fine, ripe tannins to be worthy of aging - you don't put a VW Beetle into a garage, and ten years later open the garage door to find a Mercedes!

There's nothing better than 5 or 6 days of wine tasting at the finest wine estates to sharpen your wine tasting skills, with a great variety of young and older wines to discover. Check out our 2006 Schedule and join us!

The Pleasures of Being an FWE Repeat Client

We're proud to say that we have many satisfied clients who come back a second, third or even fourth time on our tours, both scheduled and private. Because we truly appreciate the loyalty our repeat clients show us, we make sure that they get special treatment. When we're ready to announce the following year's season of tours, our past clients are notified first and get a chance to sign up for popular tours like Bordeaux Prestige (which often sells out quickly) before anyone else. They also get special discounts on a selection of the new season's tours. If we hear of an exclusive wine opportunity in Europe that we think might suit a particular past client (a wine tasting dinner, special tasting or touring event), we contact that client to make sure they know about it. If upgrades or special amenities are available during a tour, our past clients always get priority. Finally, a special, additional "thank you" gift awaits them each time they sign up for a new tour.

If you are among our valued past clients, I hope you'll contact us again soon so we can show our appreciation and make your next trip with us even more memorable. And if you haven't yet traveled with us, we hope you'll give us the opportunity to show you our special brand of service and attention that makes our clients come back time after time on our tours!

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