French Overview

Ten primary French wine regions:

Bordeaux, Burgundy, Beaujolais,
Rhone Valley, Loire Valley, Champagne
Alsace, Provence/ Corsica
Languedoc-Roussillon, Jura-Savoie

The most famous French wine regions of them as follow:

Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne.
Bordeaux is famous for its rich red wine, and Burgundy is well known for producing light red wine and the fresh, elegant white wine, the sparkling wine from Champagne region is famous all over the world too.

French wine originated in the 1st century AD. Originally, the grape was planted in Rhone Valley of southern France. In the 2nd century, it spread to Bordeaux. Endowed temperate climate, which is beneficial to the growth of grapes, but different region has different climate and soil, so France can grow several hundreds of grape varieties. The most famous white grapes are: Chardonnay and Saivignon Blanc; red grapes are: Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah (Shiraz), Gamay and Merlot. The wines in different regions will have different quality and different taste. France is one of the countries, which styles of wines are at most in the world, mainly in white, rose and red, in which of them, the red wine is the most important.
France has a set of strict and perfect wine graduations and the quality control system. Its grade separately as: Grand Cru, 1er Cru, and Cru Bourgeois.
(1)Rank by place of origin
Basically, French wine is divided into four grades. For the best wine, its label will mark the A.O.C. . Even if you do not know how about the quality, these words has been the best guarantee that it is from the best origin, producing from the best raw material.
　　 First-class Appellation d’Orligine Controlee
　　 Appellation d’Orligine Controlee(A.O.C.), usually marked on the label, there must be d’Orligine between Appellation and Controlee.
　　 Second-class Fine Wine producing regions
　　 Vins Delimites de Qualite Supericure(V.D.Q.S.)
　　Third-class Wine of Country
　　 Vins de pays(V.d.P.), French origin wines, do not indicate grape varieties or crop year.
　　 Fourth-class Daily Table Wine
　　 Vins de Table(V.d.T.), Without indicating their origin, grape variety and year.
　　 V.d.P. in France are not the fine wine, however, their quality still are quite good, their taste mellow. V.d.T. is a popular product; a few euros per bottle, the French only consume these wines on very casual occasions in their daily lives.
　　 (2)Rank by vintage
　　Even from the same piece of domaine, different vintage produced different quality of wine. Grapes’ quality determines the quality of wine, because the wine is made from pure juice. The annual weather such as wind, rain, hail, frost in season and even insect-bacteria, all of that will affect the growth of trees and fruits. Further affect the quality of wine each year.
　　 French wine in the 70s, its quality was not ideal, fell within the acceptable level. Exception the weaker of 1984 and 1987, the 80's are the abundant harvests, all were the good vintages, especially in 1989, the red wine and white wine of Bordeaux and Burgundy, their ratings are more than 90 points. Into the 1990s, 1990 and 1995 are the "golden vintages."
Therefore, only the wine, which label indicating their origin and vintage could be accounted fine wine, otherwise, cloud only be third or fourth-classes wines. All provinces had a tradition of wine-making. French " Appellation d’Orligine Controlee " provide consumers with a reliable guarantee for the source and quality style of the wine. France has strict regulations on wine-making and its label. The production of V.d.P. and V.d.T. not only need to implement European standards, but also need to follow the more stringent provisions of French law.