About the Top 100 Inside Our Tasting Department How We Pick The Top 100Like any Frenchman worth his sel, my French host dad loves wine. On any given night we might be uncorking a 1997 Côtes du Rhône or pulling an award-winning Rioja out of the cave à vin. And as someone who once felt that yellow tail was a splurge, I'm not sure I deserve all of this well-aged goodness. But thanks to my host dad I really have gotten a wine education this year, and have learned a lot about wine pairings, varietals and growing regions. So without further ado, here is what I have learned about wine after a year in France. 1. White wine is better with cheese. In fact, never drink red wine with cheese. 2. When it comes to wine pairings, it's best to choose a wine that comes from the same region as the dish. For example, if you are cooking a boeuf bourguignon, which comes from Burgundy, pair the dish with a Burgundy wine. 3. When pairing a wine, consider the dish's sauce- if it's a white sauce, like blanquette de veau, pair it with a white wine.

If the dish has a dark sauce, pair it with a red wine. A rooster dish that I braised in Côtes du Rhône. So for the meal I served it with… the same Côtes du Rhône. 4. If wine is used in the dish, serve the same wine alongside it. 5. Wine and chocolate do NOT go together, contrary to common belief. Map of the principal wine regions in France, source 6. The top five wine regions in France, in terms of quality, are traditionally Bordeaux, Champagne, Burgundy, the Loire Valley and the Rhône Valley. 7. There is such a thing as white burgundy by the way, and it's delicious. 8. Wine qualifications are extremely complicated, but as a rule of thumb grand cru is a qualification for the best-quality wines in the region. In most regions premier cru is one ranking below grand cru. (Both of which fall into the category of wines I definitely can't afford.) 9. French wine is much cheaper than American wine because it's not taxed to death. You can buy a passable bottle of wine here for 2 or 3 euros, and a great one for less than 10.

10. Wine, baguettes and cheese are all completely reasonable pre-gaming selections. In France we rarely pre-drink with beer because wine is worlds cheaper.buy wine in paris on sunday 11. Only sparkling wine that comes from Champagne, the wine region, should be called champagne. beer and wine online ukRandom fact- French people often refer to champagne as “champ.”buy wine online international shipping 12. On the third Thursday of November the year's supply of Beaujolais Nouveau is released to great fanfare. new world wine wikiAnd even though it's sold everywhere on that Thursday, no one actually thinks Beaujolais Noveau is a high-quality wine because it's young and inexpensive. buy red wine without alcohol

(It's good enough for me though!) 13. Serious winos know which years were good wine years by heart. beer and wine shop namesApparently 2005 was a good wine year, for example. 14. If a French person asks you if you'd like a glass of wine, say “volontiers”, not “bien sûr.” In this context bien sûr means, “obviously”, as in, “Obviously I want some wine, don't you know I drink allll the time?” P.S. I learned this the hard way. 15. Terroir is the unique combination of natural factors that affect a wine or food product: soil, rock, altitude, sun, etc. Even in the same area, no two vineyards have exactly the same terroir. As Wikipedia wisely states, “In other words: when the same grape variety is planted in different regions, it can produce wines that are significantly different from each other.” I love that this is such a French concept that there isn't even a word for it in the English language.

My French Wine Region Cheat Sheet (also known as French Wine for Dummies): Alsace: Lots of crisp white wines like Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Pinot gris and Pinot blanc, and sweet white wine like Muscat. Armagnac: Where Armagnac comes from, a brandy I like to use for flambé-ing. Bordeaux: Very high-quality wines, mostly red. The red wines produced are usually blended, from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and sometimes Cabernet Franc. Bourgogne (Burgundy): Very high-quality wines, lots of grand cru, both red and wine produced. Chablis and Beaujolais are also produced in Burgundy. Champagne: Where the best bubbly comes from of course! Cognac: Where Cognac comes from, the famous brandy. Languedoc-Roussillon: The largest French wine region in terms of vineyard surface and production, so it is where most of France's cheap bulk wines are produced. Provence: Rosé, rosé, rosé! Loire Valley: Great wines, mostly white. Rhône Valley: My personal favorite for red wines.

The most famous appelation from this region is Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Do you enjoy French wine? Which one if your favorite? About Latest Posts Latest posts by Ashley Fleckenstein (see all) The Life-changing Magic of Korean Skincare When Loneliness Strikes Abroad 6 Cookbooks that Travelers will Absolutely LoveEverything I’ve Learned About Costco Wine in Seven Years of Running This Site2013 Bordeaux is not the vintage of the century. The growing season, with its cold, damp character made sure of that. 30, 40 or 50 years ago, a year the quality of 2013 Bordeaux would have been a complete disaster. But that is not what took place with 2013 Bordeaux. With the willingness to sacrifice quantity for quality, the best producers, with the financial ability to do what needed to be done made some fine wine. 2013 Bordeaux is not an exciting, sexy vintage. But having tasted close to 400 different 2013 Bordeaux wines, clearly, there are some nice wines worth drinking. So, what’s the problem?

When it comes to the wine, none. The average scores from the majority of wine writers and critics show the wines at an average of 89/90 Pts for perhaps the top 100 – 200 wines. Clearly, those are the not the scores for a bad vintage. To get a good idea on all the best 2013 Bordeaux wines, click on any of the following links for an overview on an appellation by appellation basis. The wines were all tasted in Bordeaux in April, 2014. 2013 St. Estephe Wine 2013 St. Julien Wine 2013 Pessac Leognan Wine 2013 Haut Medoc Wine 2013 St. Emilion Wine 2013 Bordeaux Petit Chateau Satellite Appellation Wines 2013 Sauternes and Barsac wine Had the wines been priced in proportion to consumer demand, while 2013 Bordeaux was never going to be an easy sell, it would not have been an impossible sale. I am all for the open, free market when it comes to pricing. Producers can and should price their wine for what they think the market will bear. But 2013 Bordeaux wines remain unsold.

Selling the wines to a negociant is not selling the wine. Merchants need to buy and consumers need to purchase as well for it to be a true sale. For some odd reason, in the great vintages, Bordeaux has a knack for pricing the wines correctly. They might seem expensive to mature collectors that are used to paying lower prices, but for the next generation of wine lovers, the wines seem fairly priced.On the one hand, due to the excessive unflattering and at times, unfair press, 2013 Bordeaux was never going to receive a warm reception in the marketplace. Perhaps the price the market was actually willing to pay was unappetizing to the chateau owners. But it would have been nice to see an effort. It is difficult for 2013 Bordeaux to sell through to consumers when others recent, and more successful vintages are available in the market for less money. On the other hand, there is always another vintage. While some bloggers, the press and wine consumers shout that Bordeaux is ruined for life, to paraphrase Mark Twain, the news about the premature death of Bordeaux has been greatly exaggerated.

You can take this to the bank. The next great vintage that is at the level of quality seen in years like 2000, 2005 or 2009, will make the prices we complained about with 2010 seem like the good old days when Bordeaux was still affordable. Something else you can count on. Bordeaux wine will continue gaining in popularity and sadly price as the wines improve and the customer base expands. Regardless of the increase of quality in the wine, if producers want to see successful futures campaigns take place, consumers need to be rewarded for their risk and faith. That means they want to see prices increase from the price point they paid by a reasonable amount. In today’s world, futures buyers need to receive at least 20% return on their investment over the 2 year period for buying en primeur. If there is no reward for the risk, where is the incentive for buying early? If prices remain stable, which is fine, buyers should just wait and purchase the wines on release. Prior to the 1982 vintage and Robert Parker, there was no compelling reason for consumers to purchase en primeur.

Perhaps a return to buying on release is where the market is headed over the next several years. If that happened, the focus of all the reports and the marketplace would return to the wine, instead of the price. Speaking of returning to a focus on the wines. the style of the 2013 Bordeaux vintage is on the classic side. The wines are not for long term aging. The majority of the wines will be drinkable on, or close to release. Across the board, they are on the fresh, low alcohol, red berry side of the style range. There are some wine lovers that will prefer the style of 2013 Bordeaux, over more the widely heralded recent vintages like 2009 and 2010, due to its low alcohol, approachability and focus on freshness. There are producers in every major appellation that made better wine than their peers, and perforce, chateaux that under performed, just like in every year. St. Julien is the most consistent appellation. However, in a year that clearly favored Cabernet Sauvignon , it’s interesting to note that the best 2013 Bordeaux wines came from Pomerol and St. Emilion .