Tastoria in the Press

Exclusive Virtual Wine article by award winning writer Andrew Jefford, author The New France

France is unique.  No single wine-producing country elsewhere in the world has quite the same diversity of soils and climate, or the same repertoire of outstanding grape varieties.

But that’s not all.  The French have a restless genius for sensual matters.  They are never completely happy with the achievements of the past; they are always looking for new ways to refine existing pleasures. 

There’s been a revolution in thinking among France’s wine-growers over the last decade.  They know the world has changed, and that the only way they can compete is by making wines which are not only more consistent than in the past, but which also reflect their place of origin in compelling aromas and flavours.

If you love white wines of crisp, mouthwatering purity and mineral finesse, then the 2004 Chablis of Brocard is a benchmark.  Yes, it’s made from Chardonnay, but it’s the limestone hills of the Chablis region that you’ll taste, rather than the grape variety.

Sauvignon Blanc was once the preserve of the Loire valley and Bordeaux.  In France’s ‘New World’ of the Languedoc, it takes on a bright, passionfruit zinginess, as the 2005 T’air d’Oc from Domaine Gayda proves.

Fancy a stroll in an exotic garden?  The 2004 Gewurztraminer from René Muré combines the aromas of roses and of lychees, though its heady, amply fleshed flavours re-define the textural possibilities of white wine, too.

No grape variety is more fashionable at the moment than Syrah (called Shiraz in Australia and elsewhere), and the vivid, juicy and spicy T’air d’Oc example from Domaine Gayda puts the grape through its paces in the warmth of the Midi.

Côtes de Ventoux, as Tour de France fans know, is where the Rhône valley meets the final peak of the Alpine chain.  Syrah and Grenache grapes grown there have a little more freshness to them than you’ll find in the Rhône itself, as the Delas Côtes de Ventoux from the fiercely sunny 2003 vintage proves.

Finally, the 2001 Château Liversan exemplifies the perennial appeal of Bordeaux: balanced, digestible and mid-weight, with the refined cigar box scents and flavours so typical of the Cabernet Sauvignon grape when grown in the gravels of the Haut-Médoc.