If you are an enthusiast of elegant drinks, surely, it is impossible to ignore the famous wines with a long and rich history. With its rich diversity in food culture as well as climate and agricultural traditions, France is one of the countries famous for its excellent cuisine and wine industry. With hundreds of years of experience, France has developed lands famous for its expensive, high-class wines that create the best wines in the world. In this article, we will explore the top 10 best wineries in France and the history and culture of these unique lands. Let's take a look at the places you know and don't forget to leave a vote for your favorite land.
1 Champagne
The Champagne region is famous for its wine (Photo source: Entiretravel.com.au)
The northern region of Champagne, which is close to the border areas with Belgium and Luxembourg, has a characteristic white clay substance, favorable for growing and harvesting grapes, contributing to the famous sparkling wine of this place. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier grapes are carefully harvested by gardeners, undergoing double fermentation in oak barrels, to produce a distinct, rich flavor.
Champagne wines are often served during important events to celebrate memorable milestones. Among wines, wines from the Champagne region are consistently at the top of the list of most preferred premium wines. It has a high content of carbon dioxide, effervescently smooth and fragrant, which creates great excitement when opening the lid. Therefore, Champagne wine is very expensive due to the sophisticated production process and large labor effort to get the best finished product.
2 Alsace
Alsace landscape (Photo source: Entiretravel.com.au)
Located at the foot of the Rhine Mountains bordering Germany and Switzerland, the Alsace region of eastern France produces the best white wine in the world thanks to its dry climate and abundant sunshine, favorable for maturation and fermentation.
Wines from Alsace are named after grape varieties used for fermentation rather than production sites, such as Riesling, Pinot Gris and Gewürztraminer. The Riesling bottle has a slight smoky scent, while the Gewürztraminer has the aroma of lychee fruit and rose water. While Pinot Gris has a special flavor that combines apricots, honey and lemon flavors.
3 Loire Valley
The climate in the Loire Valley is ideal (Photo source: Entiretravel.com.au)
The Loire Valley region is on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and preserved with unique castles, romantic castles and beautiful landscapes. This northwestern region is also famous for producing some delicious wines with grape fields along the Loire River.
The Loire Valley is known as a wine lover's paradise with diverse plants and vineyards throughout four small regions. For example, in the upper Loire Valley, there is white wine Sauvignon Blanc with lemon flavors and Sancerre wines, while in Touraine there are rich bottles of Cabernet Franc red wine and spice flavors. The wine here is considered the most delicious and rich, due to the favorable climate for the cultivation and fermentation of wine in oak.
4 Bordeaux
Bordeaux landscape (Photo source: Entiretravel.com.au)
Bordeaux is one of the most famous wine-growing regions in the world, with many lush and nutritious vineyards. The region is one of the three main pillars of the French viticulture industry, along with Champagne and Burgundy.
Bordeaux is a land that produces some of the best wines in the world from grapes such as merlot and cabernet. The wines here have a sour fruit flavor or a sweet ripe fruit flavor, depending on the crop year or harvest year, the quality of the grapes harvested that year. The wines in this region are divided into two types of left and right banks. The left bank has rich flavors of mint, tobacco and black currants, while the right bank has more characteristic flavors of mint and cherry.
5 Rhône Valley
Vineyards in the Rhône Valley (Photo source: Entiretravel.com.au)
The Rhône River Valley is the second largest grape region in France, with 14 different wine varieties. The northern and southern regions of the Rhône valley have a favorable climate, suitable for growing a variety of grapes of excellent quality.
In the north of this region, there is a cool climate and fertile granite clay, suitable for most grape varieties. This place is famous for producing fermented red and white wines from Syrah grapes, flavored with green herbs, plums and black olives. Meanwhile, the southern Rhône valley has a much larger land area. The diverse terrain in this region has different Mediterranean climate experiences, contributing to the blend of grenache syrah mourvèdre grapes. The flavors of the wines produced are rich lavender and raspberry flavors.
6 Provence
Landscape of Provence (Photo source: Entiretravel.com.au)
Surely, are you still looking for quality Rosé wines with fresh taste? If so, book a flight to Provence, one of France's warmest wine-growing regions. More than half of all Rosé wines produced each year are produced from this region. It has a warm climate, a variety of grape varieties and brewing styles similar to the southern Rhône Valley. Provence has eight important wines, of which Bandol is the most characteristic and famous wine of the region.
7 Southwest France
Landscape of the Southwest (Photo source: Entiretravel.com.au)
If you want to explore the unique, diverse vineyards and distilleries in the lesser-known region, then the Southwest or Sud-Ouest is ideal. Although not overly famous, the Southwest is a great place to check out with a host of great awards and wines using rare, lesser-known French grape varieties.
Many bottles of wine produced in the Southwest are similar to Bordeaux but they are not very expensive. The gardeners add to the barrels of unique grape varieties just to create personalization, and special flavors for their products.
8 Languedoc-Roussillon
Favorable climate in Languedoc-Roussillon region (Photo source: Entiretravel.com.au)
Languedoc-Roussillon is the largest wine-producing region in France as it contributes almost a third of the country's total wine exports. Production focuses on the number of bottles, resulting in affordable prices for large orders. However, there are still some remarkable wines that deserve a try.
Most wine bottles blend flavors instead of using a single grape. For example, Languedoc-Roussillon red wine has a slightly darker structure and a stronger fruity taste than in other regions.
Here's an interesting thing: The world's oldest sparkling wine and rumored to be the inspiration for Champagne, Blanquette de Limoux, originated in Languedoc.
9 Corsica
Vineyards in Corsica (Photo source: Entiretravel.com.au)
Despite its proximity to Italy, Corsica remains one of France's 26 most famous wine-growing regions. Despite its remote location and surrounded by the sea, Corsica has a diverse list of wine options for visitors and wine connoisseurs alike. Corsica is also one of the few producers of Pinot Noir, Tempranillo and Barbarossa wines in the world. If you are a wine lover, you should not ignore this land.
10 Beaujolais
Wine production in Beaujolais (Photo source: Entiretravel.com.au)
Although Beaujolais is geographically part of Burgundy, it is considered a separate wine region because it is the sole producer of Gamay grape wines. These grapes undergo fermentation for several weeks before being bottled and sold. Beaujolais is also home to the ten largest cru vineyards, serving neighborhood wineries.
