best red wine paris

Your email address will be safe and not be transmitted to any third partyBritons love New World wines but across the Channel, something stirs. France is fighting back, writes Jonathan Ray France is fighting back. It's true that in Britain we continue to drink more Australian wine than French, but our chums across the Channel do seem to have risen to the challenge from the New World - and from elsewhere in the Old - by producing some hugely enjoyable and very interesting stuff of late. Yes, prices in Bordeaux and Champagne continue to rise, with modestly-priced examples in either region hard to come by, but elsewhere in France fascinating and rewarding wines are easily found. Alsace remains a particular favourite of mine, with tasty, aromatic, food-friendly whites of a style and charm that you simply won't find anywhere else. The Rhône Valley is hard to beat for reds of real character and value, while Languedoc-Roussillon and the more obscure appellations of the Loire, southwest France and Provence are home to some delightfully quirky and individual wines, made both from the classic varieties as well as from rediscovered and revitalised local ones.

Although the euro is working against us, I have found myself turning more and more to French wines in the past few months. Listed here are 10 that I have particularly enjoyed. THE TOP 10 1) 2006 Bourgogne Chardonnay 13% vol (£7.99; Marks & Spencer) Made by the Nicolas Potel stable from hand-picked grapes grown in and around the village of Meursault, this is an absolute belter of a white burgundy. With its soft supple fruit, well-judged use of French oak and juicy finish it could pass for something far grander.
guide to buying wineMatch it with creamy fish dishes or chicken and mushroom pie.
best wine cake2) 2005 Château Barreyres, Haut-Médoc, Cru Bourgeois 13% vol (£8.99;
best wine label softwareSainsbury's) As we all know, 2005 was a cracking year for red bordeaux and the big names were bought up long ago en primeur or remain prohibitively expensive.

But for well under a tenner, Château Barreyres is superb value. With ripe, smooth blackcurrant and black cherry fruit and structured tannins, it is drinking beautifully now and will continue to improve. Ideal for the Sunday roast. 3) 2006 Bourgogne Pinot Noir 13% vol (£7.99; Marks & Spencer) Made from 50-year-old vines, this is the red equivalent of the chardonnay above and is similarly great value. 2006 was a marvellous year for grape ripeness and there's no shortage of spicy, jammy fruit on the palate with silky soft tannins and hints of vanilla. The classic match for boeuf bourguignon, it can also partner grilled tuna steak, bangers and mash or simple salads. 4) 2007 Domaine Josmeyer Alsace Pinot Blanc "Mise du Printemps" 13% vol (£10.95-£11.95; Taurus Wines 01483 548484, Haynes Hanson & Clark 020 7584 7927, Booths 01772 693800) A lovely wine from Josmeyer's biodynamic vineyards in Wintzenheim that's fresh and lively, with scrumptious honeyed pears on the palate and a long, dry finish.

I can't remember tasting a finer example of Alsace Pinot Blanc. Delicious with onion tart or baked sea bass. 5) 2005 Château Mont-Redon, Côtes-du-Rhône Rouge 13.5% vol (£85.18 per dozen; Justerini & Brooks 020 7484 6400) Established in 1344, Château Mont-Redon is one of the oldest wine-producing estates in France and the largest single property in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The estate's soft, spicy Côtes-du-Rhône, blended from Grenache, Cinsault and Syrah, is the best I've had in many a year. Great value and perfect for early summer barbecues. 6) 2006 Château Puysserguier, Saint Chinian Blanc 13% vol (£8.99-£9.49; Bacchanalia 01223 576292, Corkscrew Wines 01228 543033, Hoults 01484 510700, Martinez Wines 01943 603241) This white Saint Chinian from a Languedoc cooperative is something of a rarity and utterly delicious. A blend of Vermentino, Grenache Blanc and Marsanne - part oak-fermented and part steel-fermented - it is soft and buttery with hints of acacia flower, honey and spice.

Try it with butternut squash risotto or pumpkin ravioli. 7) 2007 Côté Tariquet, Côtes de Gascogne 11.5% vol (£6.25-£6.50; The Wine Society 01438 737700, Advintage Wines 020 8286 0089) I love the wines of Domaine de Tariquet - France's largest independent vineyard - and this is one of my favourites. A very un-French blend of chardonnay and sauvignon blanc, it is deliciously fruity, with a dry to off-dry finish and makes for classy quaffing wine. 8) Laurent Perrier NV Brut Ultra Champagne 13% vol (£36; Selfridges 0800 123400, Harvey Nichols 020 7235 5000, Harrods 020 7730 1234) Made from 55 per cent chardonnay and 45 per cent pinot noir, this wonderfully invigorating champagne has had no sugar added at any stage and is as dry as they come. A worthy successor to Laurent Perrier's fabled "grand vin sans sucre" of years ago, it makes a guilt-free, low calorie, aperitif. 9) 2005 Château Roques Mauriac "Classic" Bordeaux Rosé 12.5% vol (£5.49 as part of mixed case; Bordeaux Undiscovered 0800 876 6958, www.bordeaux-undiscovered.co.uk) This blend of 60 per cent merlot and 40 per cent cabernet franc from the Entre-Deux-Mers in Bordeaux is a beguiling rosy pink with elusive hints of wild strawberries on the nose.

Light and undemanding rather than full-bodied and characterful, it is crisp, dry and very refreshing when served chilled, either as an aperitif or with simple starters of smoked salmon or parma ham. 10) 2005 Irouléguy, Domaine Ilarria,"Cuvée Bixinto" 12.5% vol (£16.50; Yapp Bros 01747 860423) Peio Espil is one of only half a dozen independent winemakers in Irouléguy at the foot of the Pyrenees and his feisty red is a delight. Made from 100 per cent organic tannat (famous for its antioxidant powers) and a splash of cabernet sauvignon, it's practically a health drink. Decant and serve with barbecued leg of lamb. • Telegraph Wine from Waintrose: Browse our range of French winesFRENCH wine labels seem designed to confuse buyers rather than enlighten them. They often don't tell you the grape variety, what it tastes like, or even how sweet or dry it may be. The largest print is often more likely to be the name of the village or region, which may tell you very little about the wine.

Hundreds of individual producers make Chablis or Sancerre, for example, and sell it under almost indistinguishable labels. So, bear in mind that while Jean Dupont's Cotes du Rhone may be delicious, his lazy cousin Jacques's might taste just like bilge-water.Choose well, however, and from as little as £3 a bottle you can find excellent wines - many of which never make it to the British shops. Here is our guide to the best buys, region by region.Alsace The quality of winemaking varies enormously, too. Perfectly decent, basic Gewürztraminer, for example, can be found for less than £3 a bottle at the region's many huge cooperatives, but you can find far more intense and interesting - and far pricier - examples of this grape made by domaines that may well work according to the rules of organic agriculture and limit yields to tiny amounts per vine.Unless they are labelled Vendange Tardive - late harvest - or Sélection de Grains most wines tend to be fruity and rich but more or less dry. However, almost identically labelled bottles of Gewürztraminer and Pinot Gris can vary widely in the level of sweetness they contain.

The sweeter ones can be delicious, but it would be helpful if their producers gave some warning of the style you are going to find when you pull the cork.Where to buy Dom Weinbach (03 89 47 13 21 by appt) is run by Laurence Faller, one of France's growing band of highly successful winemaking women. It produces small quantities of all of the principal grape varieties in the village of Kayserberg. Cave de Turckheim (03 89 30 23 60 by appt) is a big cooperative with reliable wines at every price and quality level. Bordeaux The style of red Bordeaux is essentially dictated by three factors. First, there are grape varieties (Médoc and Graves tend to use more Cabernet Sauvignon, which explains their blackcurranty flavour, while St Emilion, Pomerol, Fronsac, Côtes de Castillon, Cotes de Blaye and Bourg all have much more Merlot and tend to be softer and plummier). Second, there is the proportion of new oak barrels that has been used; and third, there's the vintage. The weather varies radically from one year to the next and a cool, rainy summer will make for dilute, unripe-tasting wines.

Where to buy Château de la Riviere, Fronsac (05 57 55 56 56 by appt) has a classic fairy-tale castle that would be worth a visit even if it produced no wine at all. Look out for the recently launched "Aria" super-cuvee: costlier, but worth it. Château Bonnet (05 57 25 58 58) makes reliably good-value (under £5) red and white from the Entre-Deux-Mers region - and the family makes far pricier wine at the more famous Château la Louviere. Château Sociando-Mallet (05 56 73 38 80 by appt) is a top-class Médoc estate - the wine to buy is La Demoiselle de Sociando-Mallet, the château's lower-priced "second wine". Burgundy There is a ludicrous number of separate appellations here, ranging from large areas like Mâcon Villages and Beaujolais, whose wines appear in every supermarket, to tiny "Grand Cru" vineyards such as Clos de Tart that produce a few thousand bottles per year.Burgundy has a few excellent large merchants and cooperatives, but most of the best wine comes from small, family-owned estates.

Collecting a case of wine yourself could not only easily save you £7 or £8 a bottle; it will more than likely allow you to find a wine on which you could never lay your hands in Britain.Where to buy Chablis: La Chablisienne (03 86 42 89 89) is one of the best cooperatives in France, with wines ranging from the most basic Petit Chablis to the grandest of Grands Crus. Michel Laroche (03 86 42 89 28 by appt) is the region's most dynamic merchant. The St Martin is particularly good value. Moreau-Naudet (03 86 42 14 83 by appt) is a family-run business with superlative wines. The Chablis Vaillons is a great buy. Côte d'Or: La Cave des Hautes-Côtes (03 80 25 01 00), on the Route Nationale south out of Beaune, offers a wide range of wines of varying quality. The basic Burgundy is generally good value at under £5. A-F Gros (03 80 22 61 85 by appt) is one of many members of the Gros family who make wine in and around Vosne Romanée. If you want to taste red Burgundy at its best, try the lovely rich "Aux Réas" 1999.

Great value at about £15. Champagne The first key to buying Champagne lies in knowing the kinds of grape that have been used. Most of this region's wine is a blend of two black grapes (the Pinot Noir and its cousin, the little-known Pinot Meunier) and one white, the Chardonnay, which makes a richer style. A bottle labelled as Blanc de Blancs, however, will invariably be a pure Chardonnay, which gives it flavours of apple, pear and pineapple.Another useful hint is that Brut Champagne should be pretty dry, while Extra Dry is actually a little softer and sweeter.Where to buy Jacquesson (03 26 55 68 11 by appt) and Billecart-Salmon (03 26 52 60 22 by appt) are less often seen in Britain than the offerings of bigger producers, but these two firms produce some of the best Champagne of all. The Billecart-Salmon Rosé is superlative. Pierre Gimonnet (03 26 59 78 70 open daily; Sat by appt) is a small estate with lovely Blanc de Blancs. The Loire Among the wines most worth buying are the reds of Chinon and Bourgueil whose fresh blackcurrant flavour offers an opportunity to taste the Cabernet Franc grape at its unadulterated best.

Other areas to explore are Sancerre, Quincy and Pouilly Fumé, where the Sauvignon Blanc is often at its best, and Vouvray and Savennières which are the showcase for white wines made from the appley Chenin Blanc grape. Savennieres is invariably bone dry, but Vouvray comes in just about every possibly level of sweetness. Sec ought to be dry but, as in Alsace, often isn't.Where to buy Chateau de Chamboureau (02 41 77 20 04 by appt) is the place to find gorgeous dry Savennières with wonderful dry but honied Chenin Blanc flavours. Domaine des Aubuisières (02 47 52 67 82 by appt) is a small estate, offering lovely sweet Vouvray, and great value sparkling wine. Charles Joguet (02 47 58 55 53 by appt) is for many critics the king of Chinon. This is certainly a great place to discover the wines of this area. The Rhône The southern Rhone is the place to find red and white Côtes du Rhône (and Côtes du Rhône Villages which should be better) as well as Châteauneuf du Pape, Vacqueyras and Gigondas, the rosés of Tavel and Lirac and the sweet Muscats of Beaumes de Venise.