It's interesting to notice that most of you, when you talk about wines, are rather refering to the
cépage (grape variety), when I would rather think to the
terroir first.
In the US, in Australia or in Chile, wines are usually produced in industrial quantities, on very wide surfaces, so there's only a minimal thought about the exact location where the wine has been produced. Yet the nature of climate and soils are of extreme importance.
In France, we would not say "it's a red cabernet", or "it's a zinfandel"... but rather "it's a
Bourgogne", "it's a
Medoc", "it's a
Côtes du Rhône"... and so on.
The terroir says a lot more: its taste, how it has been "vinifié", it's far more precise. The same grape variety, when grown on different soils can produce tremendously different wines, especially in quality.
There are awful, undrinkable Bordeaux. And there are incredible Bordeaux too. Sometimes, the difference between the two is only a hill, a micro-climate, or a nearby stream.
When you taste a french wine, you taste the land where it has been invented, or carefully selected.
So far my favorites are red Bourgogne [red burgundy] from the
Côtes de Beaune area, up to the
Côtes de Nuit.
Gevrey-Chambertin, le "Bonnes Mares" in the
Chambolle-Musigny AOC,
Vosne-Romanée, Pommard, Aloxe-Corton... et caetera...
Those fabulous names are poetry for my palate, my nose and my ears!
There are deep, complex wines that are bathed with the morning light (little limestone hills exposed to the east), and a little dessicating effect because of the southern winds directly coming from Mediterranée through the Rhône and Saône valleys..
They should reach maturity after 5 or 10 years.
