whin.es weekly

France.

I've spent a lot of time looking up bits and bobs on France this week. France is a pretty interesting place when it comes to wine. That's a pretty obvious statement, but it's true. They call their grapes different names, they refer to the wines solely by region or chateau and they have a specific word that encompasses everything from soil, sunshine, rain, wind, geography and geology. Terroir (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terroir). A weird, but terrifyingly interesting lot they are.

So, here is a quick whip through France: there's (loosely) 4 main regions, plus a whole host of others. There you go.

Ever heard of Bordeaux? Some of the most famous red wines in the world come from this area, plus it's split up into a serious number of appellations. Including Medoc, Saint-Emillion, St Julian, Paulliac (the list is endless). What I've been looking at with Bordeaux is the differences between the two common divides. Right and Left bank. In general a more fruity merlot based blend comes from the right bank which included Saint-Emilion and Pomerol. And a more dense, Cabernet Sauvignon predominant wines come from the left bank, which includes Medoc and Graves. I've prattled on before about Medoc and Haut-Medoc, I once described a Medoc (Chateau chantelys) at a wine tasting as a wine that I could drink with a packet of crisps or a piece of toast for breakfast, some people even agreed with me, they understood the excellent food matching capabilities of that wine. Idiots.

I don't drink the Bordeaux dry whites. There's more interesting whites about and the main grape variety is semillion. Some are ok, but you've got to do your research (if you want, get in touch and I'll look into a couple and write them up). Drink the sweet Sauternes though, excellent with a Christmas pudding and some vodka margarine.

Burgundy is on the right side of middle France, a massively divers, with some absolute classic regions and wines. I'd have at it with a mineraly, flinty, bone dry Chablis and a handful of oysters with a little rock salt. Definitely also try a light burgundy red, or a Beaujolais. I think Beau is underrated; the Cru Beaujolais (Beau top 10 essentially) cover their tracks by using their village name instead. Clever. Look out for a Brouilly or a Julienas and definitely a Fleurie. All Beaujolais, all light, but all different.

A highly underrated region (in my opinion), because of its diversity is the Rhône. The northern Rhône and southern Rhône are really different. Up the top you've got mainly red wines like Cote Rotie and Crozes-Hermitage et al, where they blend up to 20% white grapes in with the reds. It's a bit more regimented than that, the French make sure each region has specific rules for blending different varieties. Genius. Make each region different. By Law.

The southern Rhône includes cote-du-Rhône and the CdR Villages regions and of course the famous Chateauneuf-du-Pape region. With blends of load of different grapes including spicy syrah and Grenache grapes, but can be (as is the case with C-d-P) 18 differnet regional grape varieties! Eighteen, wow, that blew my mind this week. Syrah and Shiraz are the same grape. That's just the French, they called it syrah first and everyone else called it Shiraz, why not? Because they didn't want to be the same as France? I think so.

The other region I've been looking at is the lesser known, main region. The Loire. There are some absolute gems in the Loire. Obviously Sancerre, but maybe a chenin blanc! Vouvray produces incredibly fresh, crisp white wines with a hint of sweetness and plenty of fruit, made almost exclusively from chenin blanc, a grape that has been made popular by south Africa. The region called Chinon! One of the few red regions in the Loire, Cabernet Franc grapes are at the forefront here. There is a small amount of Cabernet Franc in Bordeaux, usually as small part of the blend, but in Chinon, it's usually at least 80% which produces light reds. Chinon reds go exceptionally well with food, a red for white meats and risotto dishes, with more depth than a burgundy or New Zealand pinot noir.

Writing about France brings me back to the time I went to work there. I learnt stuff, ate nice thing and generally had a relaxed time in a hotel as a waiter. I had to speak French and everything.

I spent two weeks working at the l'Hotel Les Tourelles. It is in north-west France, near the town of Amiens, but on the coast. When we were not at work me and my colleague Luke spent most of the time wandering around. The little village of Le Crotoy is pretty much empty, not much to do but eat and drink wine. Excellent. The work involved being a runner in the hotel restaurant at night and serving on the outside patio for lunch. I got thrown in to serving real customers on day 3 after proving I could hold my own in French, and Luke got stuck with pouring drinks and carrying food about. I was amazed by the customers knowledge of the food and especially of the wines and the wine list. People were asking constantly for specific vintages of specific regions of France, only France. A common knowledge and interest in eating and drinking, a passion for quality and preference you just don't see in England. Not one person said “le vin du maison” (house wine).

We did venture on the dodgiest bus service I've ever been on into Abbeyville, closer but smaller than Amiens, but still definitely a town. Luke constantly looked like a tourist, even when we're in England he dresses like a tourist. Bright yellow board shorts, flip flops and a face like a ripe tomato. I tried desperately to look normal, but we got clocked as English Aliens wherever we went. We wanted (needed) some wine to take home so stopped in at the French equivalent of Lidl for some supplies and spent ages trying to figure out which wines were which. There wasn't one country other than France and lots were local but mostly from the nearest region, the Loire. You just don't get that anywhere else in the world; ignoring every other wine producing country and being happy with the wine available on your doorstep. We were stuck scrabling for ideas when a small, walking stick wielding batty old French lady hobbled up to us and muttered in broken English, “you, err, wan... some 'elp?” to which I replied in French “oui, votre favourite vin rouge, sil vous plait”. She seemed pleased I'd replied in a Suffolk accented French and directed us to her favourite local reds, and Anjou and a Chinon. Me and Luke both bought a bottle of each for a total cost of about 10€ (4 bottles 2€50 each!!) and when we got home were completely blown away but the character and quality, and have both kept an affection for the regions. You just wouldn’t get that in England in either. If I came up to you in a supermarket, harbouring my love and knowledge of wines and suggested you take a chance on something new and interesting, I'm pretty confident I'd get a lot of “thanks, but no thanks...”, but reading it here is obviously a totally different story, huh?

Next week Italy. Not.

That's it for now, you can follow me on twitter @whinesblog, check out my website http://whin.es and you can come and see me in-store at the Adnams Cellar & Kitchen Store in Woodbridge, Suffolk. Should you wish.