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Say "Wine" think "France."Here in the U.S., the fame of French wine creates the impression of a very wealthy people, bicycling home with their baguettes and berets after a tough day smoking in a café to prepare a few escargot, some foie gras, or some other delicacy. All accompanied by a great Bordeaux or Burgundy, which the French drink copiously as it is said to keep them healthy despite their rich diet. It's a bit exaggerated compared to the real thing. Yes, the French treasure their baguettes. Yes, they have a rich culinary tradition - but with plenty of everyday recipes that use ingredients that we wouldn't find unusual in you typical American supermarket. And they do treasure their wine, but most of them are not rich. That means Grand Cru Burgundies and First Growth Bordeaux like Chateau Haut-Brion grace most Frenchmen's tables only on the most special of occasions, if ever. Traditionally, the French drink locally. The Provencals drank their famous rosés and Bandol. In Jura, their own Chardonnays, Savagnins, and Trousseaus - the latter two grapes, in fact, are rarely found elsewhere, within France or otherwise. Most French wine regions have at least one famous and expensive wine, but every region has everyday wines at everyday prices so the French can maintain their lifestyle without breaking the bank. Two kinds of technology have raised the level of these everyday wines. The first is transportation; once upon a time, everyone drank locally-made wines because it was too difficult to transport the wines. Certain areas got a jump on fame abroad because they had easy access to shipping: Bordeaux has a large port on the Gironde River, from which they sent their wines to England and elsewhere. Burgundy and Champagne had easy access to Paris. Alsatian wines were sent off down the Rhine. But nowadays a winery doesn't need access to a river or a port to ship its wines anywhere in the world. Within France, this means wineries are competing with more than their neighbors; wines from other French regions, Spain, or, yes, even California might show up on the shelves. Fortunately, winemaking technology has also made it easier for French winemakers to raise the bar on their own wines, so the country is seeing an explosion of quality from areas both known and unheard of. And many French winemakers are turning the tables against the foreign competition by send their own products abroad. The south of the country has been the most dynamic. Bordeaux isn't all rare, famous, and costly bottles, and has such a concentration of talented winemakers that the quality is rubbing off on even the most obscure chateaux. Sparkling and dessert wines across the Languedoc-Roussillon area have lost their rustic harshness to become elegant and affordable alternatives to Champagne, and Syrah's popularity worldwide has brought new attention to it and its Rhone-based siblings, including Grenache, Mourvedre, and Cinsault. The south, however, is not the exception; throughout France good wines are becoming even better. As more and more of these wines make their way to America, it gives us a chance to taste that French lifestyle without leaving home. The wines represent French priorities that we can appreciate here, too: quality, value, and food-friendliness. And if you want to take on the wine but pass on the escargot, I don't think anyone on this side of the Atlantic is going to fault you. |
