Our Wineguide

The wonderful diversity of French wines

A wine’s quality ultimately depends on the grapes' quality and a winemaker’s job is to maximise their potential. A wine’s character results from a combination of 3 main elements: grape variety, soil and climate. The last two form what is known in France as “terroir”.
Terroir can vary quite significantly from one vineyard region to another, or even within the same region. This is the main reason for the extraordinary diversity of French wines.

Grape varieties differ from one region to another and are planted in the soils for which they are best suited.

Over the past twenty years, noble grape varieties, such as Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Syrah have been planted in Languedoc, where they are mainly used to produce “varietal” wines, called “Vins de Pays d’Oc”. These feature the grape variety unlike Appellation d’Origine Protégée wines (former AOC), which focus mainly on the area of production and terroir.

Note that in France, single grape varietal wines must be made with a minimum of 85% of the grape variety mentioned on the label, whereas in most of the New World wines only 65% are required to have the right to mention the grape variety.