Print this pageDate Added: 04-12-2006
More important than food and wine. Many won’t agree. I love wine with food. Fine vin et traditional haute cuisine. Getting hot under the collar, being a stuffed shirt or getting toffee nosed about wine is not the way most of us enjoy. Certainly not the French. Each will enjoy their cultural heritage in their own way. So should we. I know what I like is absolutely right. Wine is like love it’s in the eye of the beholder. Wine can be drunk, and an accompaniment to food or a unique emotional experience. Enjoy it. Have fun.
For those of us who want a point of reference when choosing wine we can do no better than choose from our local region. The oldest vineyards in France are in La Var region whose growers have chosen only the best land for their vines. Talk to the growers in their fields about their art. Try “the vineyard route”: The Côteaux d’Aix, the Côte de Provence, the Côteaux Varois and of course the Bandol. All awarded the prestigious “A.O.C.” classification (Application d’Origine Contrôlée).
When you do find that well rounded elegant noble wine that YOU like, with the right balance of acidity and tannins marked by a spicy bouquet of roses, hints of cherry, notes of blackcurrant that give a long finish and leave your palette with an exciting after taste from the mature grape that settles, make sure you check the bottle has a good deposit, but don’t take back your empty for a refund. Have fun!
For great characteristics see “Grapes of Southern France”.
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