On this episode we take a look at the world of French wine, the histroy, the prestige, the production and other big notes to start our knowledge off. We will use this as a platform to explore more individual aspects of France and its regions in a more detailed exploration in the near future!
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Hello hello hello everybody out there in the podcast world this is your neighborhood somaler Dustin taking you on a journey through the wine world tonight I come to you from South Carolina however we’re going to take a journey to France our first couple podcast we are trying to get an introduction of
Things to come and big things on the horizon our next stop on this journey is through some regions so we’ve talked about some grape some history some myths now we’re going to get into the the nitty-gritty of a location so we’re going to start wide
Very broad here as we go abroad and then the closer uh we get to the regions the more we’ll break those up into individual episodes to really understand what they are cuz all of these regions uh have have some huge uh Back stories grapes information just a lot going on
So we’re going to start kind of broad this week and we’re going to go into France so when we talk about French wines pretty much kind of like the centerpiece of the wine world I think anytime you mention wine there’s two places that almost kind of go together
When you just say wine California and France now about 10 12 years ago France was one of the largest producers of wine and they still are today but Italy’s kind of overtaken them as far as production uh numbers but when you get into France as a region they are without
A doubt No Holds Barred the largest producer of high quality wines almost a ratio of two to one to anywhere else they account for almost 50% of all high quality wines uh in in the world in high quality can mean different things for different people but especially when you talk about the
Amount of money that some of the bottles uh that will come out of France they’re just astronomical compared to most other Wines in the world France has been a wine region for almost 2000 years uh probably even a little bit longer than that but as a full setup production retail the whole
Kitten Kaboodle on record about 2,000 years some of the top regions coming out of France Bordeaux burgundy the rone valley champag champagne lur Valley and alluce so we’ll kind of touch on these regions as we go through this episode today give a little bit of breakdown but
We’re not going to overly get too uh uh in depth with these regions again those are going to be more individual episodes so how did French wines really become popular were they always known as the highest quality yes and no not right off the bat I mean obviously um Greeks are probably first
And foremost and then Romans really um popularized modern um take on wine compared to what it was before so really getting into bit of culture farming land but in about a thousand ad or so sistern Ms a lot of religious purposes behind uh the wines being developed comes into
Play especially you know like in burgundy the the monks if you go to burgundy and get to see some of these locations the monks were going through and literally picking out these little bitty uh patches and would say that the soil in this little area is of such
Higher quality than that of it around that it is uh it needs to be walled off and we need to kind of like note that this is the area so if you ever see clo or close um on a bottle CL basically all that means is a wall
Area but it started way back around a th000 uh ad with um the monks going through and trying the soil and seeing what the grapes were producing so that’s how kind of uh French wines really started being known as some of the high quality uh wines that they are it wasn’t
Like some areas like Italy um you know it was kind of no Hol bar down there and they would grow the wine and make it big Productions whatever they need to do throw it in whatever that they had around leather skins whatever they they were just there to drink wine um but the
French were doing all these little like Nuance kind of farming techniques to really get the most out of it from the get-go and um about 11:52 there is a mar that happens between England and France really trying to develop uh you know some peace between the two nations in that time but
A byproduct of that one of probably many byproducts of that marriage was England got introduced to wines out of bordeau so I will post some uh maps on our Instagram so please follow all of our social accounts uh Twitter Instagram the duck Vine um and uh see some of these
Visuals but on these maps on post about um the wine regions and where they really are located but if you go up and look at where Bordeaux is uh it sits on a river got a big Delta at the top of it and straight across and on a majority of
The maps when you look at Bordeaux you can kind of see England you know just kind of sneaking in there at the top of the map uh so really that made bordeau um kind of kick off off as a great shipping destination but once that marriage happened in 11:52 it instantly
Brought over all those wines out of Bordeaux into England um and that’s how they got hooked started all the way back then thankfully with a a nice little uh love labor that uh you can connect the dots there and see those French lines just kind of growing throughout
England if you ever been to England or just look at the climate it’s a very wet country and as we all know too much rain does not make great wine so they had to go elsewhere to find really good wine now we’ve had a Kind of Revolution in
Wine um viticulture so there is a lot of ways that uh England can get involved in today’s market but back then it was really uh coming from other countries where they got hooked and France was the biggest one we’ll talk a little bit more about Bordeaux and its River and how that
Really played into French wine when we get there still kind of going on a historical tour we’re going to jump only about uh 700 years or so talk about the French Revolution again we’re going very broad here we’ll get into some more depth uh with the history of wine in our
Next part two episode but if you haven’t heard the first one go check it out really kind of talks about the very beginning of uh Humanity as a whole and where wine started from so France 1790 French French revolutions happening um once uh that’s kind of gotten settled
Down uh it led to at this point it was really all being held by the monks by the church by people that had a ton of money and not kind of where that it sits like it does today French Revolution changed that after the French Revolution the noble classes in the church were
Basically stripped of their Vineyards um and then they got redistributed amongst the people so that’s how the um Vineyards moov from the church and you’ll hear like especially if you do any kind of historical research everybody talks about the monks everybody talks about the church everybody talks about you
Know uh the the high class having these Vineyards like how did they end up at the people saying French Revolution I mean that was the whole stick of that war was uh kind of breaking up some of the high society there and it allowed the the wines to get back to the people
But the only issue with this was the people had not always been heavily involved in the vi and ven culture uh practices so they kind of had to um learn fast but they were able to still gather from some people that were willing to help some of the mon some of the church
And um still be a leader of high quality uh production so uh 1790 turning point for the French for sure now after uh the 1790s we’re going to jump ahead uh a little bit into about the mid 1800s fxur fxur is ravaging Europe so this really starts to kick off in about
1860 flxur is a root louse so when I say that we’re talking about a um bug uh that really affects the roots of the vidis Venera uh vines that all of Europe is using now how did this come around you know we’ve talked about Vineyards being around and wine being made for
Couple thousand years at this point so how are we now affected by this root louse all of a sudden well 1860 what has happened maybe in the world uh maybe a new World perhaps who is to blame here I’ll let you draw your own conclusion but as we have settled uh the United
States or starting to as we know it of course being from England and we talked about that earlier and our love for Fine Wines um we want Wines in America now the issue is they try producing wines out of the United States with the local uh grapes but what is not widely known
At first is they are different species so vidis Phifer um coming out of the old world England uh France Italy that we’ve known that produces great wines the vines in the United States the local Vines are called bidis labrusco so totally uh different species still grapes but um just different uh
Qualities of the grapes Skins are nowhere near as thick the juice is different they don’t produce the great wines that we knew and had come to love out of Europe so being as humans are and curiosity of course we bring Vines VIIs FIFA from uh France and Italy and we pl
Them in the US but then they take some of the local Vines and uh bring them back uh to Europe well American Vines are uh immune to foxer but what we didn’t know at that time because they’re very small like microscopic kind of like uh bugs
When they tried to take the vidus lusco over to England fxra was all over the vines so without really knowing American Vines bringing being brought to Europe also brought with them felox so do you blame America for having felox and putting having it on the vines that the French
Took or do we blame the French for taking the vines even though they didn’t know it had V who knows either way turns French wine production upside down it is ravaging everything they almost lose all of uh their gross their Vineyards their livelihoods things that have been working for centuries um almost completely
Eradicated so uh took a few uh years decades for them to figure out that they could graph the vidis bifera vines onto American root stock so you could graph the European vinds onto American root stock and then that would uh build up the immunity to
Fxur so at the end of the day the American vines that started the whole issue were also the fix it allowed some changes in France though at this time and some people were kind of grateful for it we actually see this kind of reproduced in California as
We bring over um more French vines into California in the 1900s where felox hits again and when America first started they were just planting anything everything anything wherever and uh they were kind of re able to reevaluate and reassess where they really wanted to put grapes so
During this time the one highlight of felox Ro was they were really able to kind of if they were wanting to change some things in their Vineyards I don’t want this grape here I want more of that grape it did allow them to only um help produce even higher quality wines so you
Got to look for the The Shining Light in uh those storms when we travel outside of this kind of time period where we are in kind of late 1800s we now hit 1930 1930 is a big um turning point in wine terminology across the world 1930 really starts classifications of of um
What we know today as wines now there are some other classifications we’ll talk about in individual areas but as a whole 1930 the French start the AOC AOC stands for appalachion derion controller so this is uh an attempt in a way to really establish uh standards for wine making and to try to
Help circumvent fraud going back to how high of quality the French wines have been known for we’re hitting kind of more modern day where really fraud and um thievery becomes more prevalent as we become more money hungry as we get other luxuries in life you know before 1900s
It was just about surviving right now we’re getting a little greedy as a human human race so people really start faking wines um because they do bring a a heavy Penny and even in today’s standards even more so so these uh sets of Standards can determine what you can
Grow how you can make the wine how much of a grape it could be how sweet how dry it really defines wine making as a whole other countries follow uh throughout history some being in different effects the French have always been kind of the strictest uh on the standards over anyone
Else but they really develop a road map here that almost every region now has something that kind of mirrors it so now we have a good understanding of kind of some of French’s broader history um how it’s gotten established uh what brought it from nothing to being
Famous and a couple few other stops along the way let’s talk about French uh as a whole for things like location one of the big factors climate so when you get into really studying ws and if you go for any kind of certification uh part of it will be uh
Blind tasting and when you get into the blind tasting side of things you can use all these little Clues when you’re tasting the wine to really kind of help point out the region uh big part of it is climate you can use things like how much of acidity does it have how much
Alcohol does it have uh all that is really majorly influenced by climate so typically if it’s a colder area your grape doesn’t uh ripen up as much you uh get more acidity than sugar when there’s not as much sugar you don’t get as much alcohol so that’s kind of
One side of it if you go the other side and it’s much warmer you get more sugar so that when you start the fermentation more sugar means more alcohol now if you compare the climate of France with other areas like the United States uh you can really see huge swings but
Even when you look at France as a whole you can almost kind of divide it into three major climate regions the west side of uh France where we really see the Lura Valley in Bordeaux is where you typically see more of a temperate Maritime kind of climate
If you go up to champagne and o sauce a little bit of burgundy we’re talking more of a cool Continental Al kind of climate then if you head down south to the Rome Valley area you’re going to have a really warm Mediterranean climate so one country where it’s sitting gets
Drastically different um climate swings into their weather and this is really kind of crazy because if you look at the the land mass of France it’s about the same size as Texas and typically when we think of Texas I know Texas can get cold and have its weather swings but it’s
Pretty steady for for a state and for that big of a land mass compared to what we get in the area that is covered by France so we’ve talked about these three big climate areas now let’s kind of get into some of the areas like Bordeaux Bordeaux is the world’s most
Successful wine region as a whole burgundy may be starting to challenge that especially if you go into the Asian market but arguably the most important wine region for a extended period of time um and continues to kind of be the example for some of the world’s most
Famous grapes uh even when foxo is hitting when we were talking earlier of course their livelihood is being threatened by this La that they have no ideas about in the 1800s so a lot of people in the Bordeaux area being the leaders that they are going start going other uh areas and
This is really where you see some regions like Spain and Italy get into uh more what we would consider now traditional methods but it was French wine makers having to leave bordeau because of FX going you know if you go into Roha a lot of the oak aging and the
Way that they use cabs was brought from foser and French wine makers coming there you look at at Super tuskin same story it was wine makers fleeing from fxur and bringing Cabernet with them uh and ending up in Tuscany to get these super tuskin so Bordeaux right on the
Coastline of Southwest France we’ve talked about it it’s got this maritime climate got the Delta there it was one of the most successful wine regions early on just because of the river that runs through it making it super easy to get the wines exported a lot of times
When you talk about the early history of countries and their wine making they’re limited uh uh by shipping methods especially when you’re talking about that long ago FedEx UPS Amazon did not exist so they had to use what nature gave them and the river was a huge
Advantage for Bordeaux not only that but it also helped maintain weather in the area making sure that there was cool breezes to keep the vines from uh getting too many issues with mold and MW it gave them great climate gave them enough uh water to be able to use in The
Vineyards it has become world famous as far as the biggest grapes in the world Cavs Merlo saignon blancs this is the example to be led by you’ve probably heard Left Bank versus right Bank or oh I’m drinking a Left Bank tonight I’m actually having one of each as I’m
Studying for my next exam I’ve comparing a Left Bank bordeau and a right bank bordeau and it’s really important when you get into studying the details of wine oh what’s one side of the river make a difference from the other side of the river it’s their soils it’s the
Rocks that are there it’s how the wind moves but it also makes certain grapes more successful so on the Left Bank you see a lot more cab sa being grown and being the major role player in Blends if you go to the right bank it’s Mero Mero is the dominant
Grae this has continued uh forever since really the monks came through it boils down um to the soil type being the biggest player there but when you look at these wines they’re so successful and they still use both grapes but for different reasons to kind of round out uh the pallets
It’s very very common out of Bordeaux to see big Blends they don’t necessarily always run 100% And they have very few grapes in the area to choose from to begin with talked about that aocc earlier defines what grapes they can use and if you use different types of grapes you can
Actually lose your Chateau now um I say Chateau because when you’re in Bordeaux The Chateau is what’s most important and this came out of a classification system that happened in 1855 now when we talk about that it really came around from a descendant of Napoleon as we would all know him and
Trying to figure figure out who is making the best wines bringing in the biggest prices so that they could market French wines better worldwide if you look at the rest of France it really uh depends more on the location of the City versus a chateau uh but as French wine is labeled
In a hole the most important thing for them is location whether it’s a city or a chateau that area is more important to them than the grape itself and once you study that and kind of learn like oh this area is famous for this you can learn French grapes and what they grow
So for example if you go into the low valley and uh you get a a v you’re going to know it’s 100% shanon block because the AOC determines by law you can only have white wine made there and it has to be 100% shin and
Bl so they really kind of rely on this burgundy world famous for uh Pino Noir they are also heavily known for their Chardonnay there’s an area that runs through Bordeaux uh the kot Dior uh which is also known as the um golden slope it’s really funny um there’s an area right in
The middle of this Hillside whereas the highest valued Wines in the world come off of this Hillside if you go too far up the hill it gets more Rocky more Lim soily um and they don’t fetch as big of a price if you go all the way to the bottom of
The slope it gets too clay uh and again not as much value where does this all come from from the rain so think about it it makes sense gravity water you pour a bunch of water at the top of a hill it’s going to take whatever’s on the top and push it all
The way down to the bottom so that middle area is like the perfect blend of um soil composition that they’ve been practicing for thousands of years to produce the best wines out of there’s some funny pictures and stories um there’s a couple documentaries on Amazon Prime that you
Can go watch watch but some people’s job when it starts to rain in burgundy is they go out and stand at the bottom of the hill with buckets and as the clay is coming down off the hill they take it back up to the hill to replace it to
Make sure that they still have the correct balance that they’ve been looking for as we move on through France uh we can look at the Rome Valley very famous for Vi SRA gach you can talk about Co Ro Hermitage uh when you get into the rone it’s really kind of split
Northern rone and southern rone another uh very popular regions uh for the southern R uh coats to rone so coats means clip uh shet to pop and Tel chatan up to pop is an interesting area I can’t wait to dive into this more with you but basically became um a popular location
Because of the pop um the pope wanted to move from out of Rome and discover this area love the winse from here put up a new Castle and that’s what shut enough to pop translates to um then you kind of move up out of some of these hotter
Regions and we end up very far north champagne one of the more most northernly wine regions for major production in the world now when we talk about champagne they have three grapes there Char pin Noir p uh and of course when we say champagne champagne must be made in Champagne to
Be called champagne I feel like we’ve all heard that so very popular uh region to come around because of their sparkling wines low valley we touched on has a lot of little like kind of sub regions that go into this uh especially when you start studying Lura Valley can
Be one of those really tricky regions it’s almost got like 40 little tiny sub regions in there and a lot of them are like the same when they’re neighborly um but you have this area that can grow s on blun you have this that can grow Shin
Blun you have this area that can only make uh sweet whites this area can only make dry whites so to really get into the low valley uh you know that’s going to take a couple of days of us just chatting and getting through now also alluce is a very unique region for
France sits right on the border of Germany please do me a favor and follow our social media I’mma post uh a picture or two from alluce it’s so interesting to see it is a French town with heavy heavy Germanic influence the buildings you will think I’m posting a picture of
Germany you really will it’s cute it’s quaint um be has become super popular for even German wines uh the climate here very cold as well matches those Mountain Productions uh that you’ll see out of Germany so here you’re going to find a lot of reasing G demeanor P gree
Um some very popular grapes as well as pin Noir you can uh find here um with a different kind of uh take than you would see out of burgundy uh you can find some other regions in France that may not be those big hitters like the langued do
Ruson um that’s really coming out of Southern uh France corica some of these smaller regions will probably lump into one episode all together and cover them just kind of in one big go there but I wanted to touch on the bigger regions kind of give you some great some ideas of their climates
Uh what they’ve become famous on in history of France to really allow us to explore France more so um than just this surface level they have so much to offer there are Specialists that literally only study Bordeaux or literally only study burgundy because these areas get
So in depth uh with knowledge so I really want to uh give each one of these areas their own time to shine and allow us to expand on those further I really hope you’ve enjoyed this podcast this episode thank you for all your support thank you again uh to Winter Atlas for
Creating that phenomenal uh theme song we’re all coming to know and love uh again please follow our social media download this podcast tell your friends share it it means the world to me and it’s the way that we can continue to do this your support is what gets us uh up
Every day and allows us to keep creating phenomenal content uh for you guys to consume I hope you guys had fun tonight maybe you learned a few few things but at the end of the day we got to drink some wine Cheers [Applause]