While Champagne is often incorrectly used to describe any sparkling wine, the first important fact about this region is that “while all Champagnes may be sparkling wines, not all sparkling wines are Champagne!” Located in the northeast of France, the Champagne wine region is the closest of all French winemaking regions to Paris (about 100km, […]
The Loire is France’s longest river, rising in the Massif Central in the south east and flows for just over 1000km total first north through Orléans, then west to the Bay of Biscay at St. Nazaire, just past Nantes. Like most wine growing regions in France, the Loire Valley owes its long history of viticulture […]
Located in the south of France, Languedoc-Roussillon is France’s largest wine producing region and is well placed for the world title, reaching from the border with Spain in the southeast to Provence in the east. Languedoc is the biggest area with Roussillon making up about 10% of the total area.) While Languedoc-Roussillon’s reputation traditionally has […]
Located in the south east between the cities of Vienne, 30 km south of Lyon and Avignon, the Rhône valley extends over 200km and is home to what are possibly some of the oldest vineyards in the country. Wine-making in the region dates back to almost 2,500 years to when the Greeks founded the city […]
Following on from Burgundy, the next stop on our Virtual Taste of France is neighbouring Beaujolais, located immediately to the south. The Beaujolais wine-growing area is relatively small and runs along the western bank of the Saône river from just south of Mâcon to the city of Lyon. It is dissected into northern and southern […]
The Burgundy region is in eastern France, in the valleys and slopes west of the Saône river, which is a tributary of the Rhône. It runs from Auxerre in the north to Mâcon in the south. The region has a long history of viticulture, with archaeological evidence pointing to winemaking in Burgundy as early as […]
Stop 2 on our Virtual Taste of France is one of the most recognized and popular wine regions in France and indeed the whole world – Bordeaux. Located in the southwest of France, around the city of Bordeaux, the rivers Garonne and Dordogne and the Gironde estuary are important in defining the various parts of […]
The first stop on our Virtual Taste of France is the northeastern region of Alsace. Located along the Rhine River plane and sharing a border with both Germany and Switzerland, Alsace has alternated between French and German control over the centuries, so the mix of these cultures and influences is obvious today in their architecture, […]
