
French wines are regarded as the best in the world, and a thread of this belief is even shared by France’s fiercest New World competitors. Although the winemakers of Australia and California, for instance, no longer try to copy famous French wine styles they still consider them benchmarks. The great French wine regions are an accident of geography, climate, and terroir. No other winemaking country in the world has such a wide range of cool climates, and this has enabled France to produce the entire spectrum of classic wine styles – from the crisp sparkling wines of Champagne through the smooth reds of Burgundy to the rich sweet wines of Sauternes. Over many centuries of trial and error, the French have discovered that specific grapes are suited to certain soils and, through this, distinctive regional wine styles have evolved, so that every wine drinker knows what to expect from a bottle of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, or Rhone, and this has been the key to success for French wines.