French Wine Regions: Champagne
Champagne is not just a sparkling wine, but the region from which the famous drink derives its name. The climate of the area is cooler than that of the southern French vineyards, making for a shorter growing season.
Wine Regions: Europe Archives
French Wine Regions: Burgundy
Nowhere in France is the terroir concept —a group of vineyards (or vines) from the same region that share similar soil and climate— more dearly held than Burgundy.
French Wine Regions: Côtes du Rhône
The Rhone Valley, looks very much like a miniature Italy as it stretches 200km (125 mi) from south of Lyon to just south of Avignon. Along this course the climate varies from the Rhone’s cold winters and warm summers to the classic Mediterranean where winters are mild and summers hot.
French Wine Regions: Provence
In the triangle formed near the Mediterranean coast by Nice in the east, Marseille in the west and Avignon to the northwest, lies the region of Provence.
French Wine Regions: Bordeaux
Bordeaux. The word itself says ‘wine’ to millions around the world. Many historians of the subject assure us that wine has been produced in Bordeaux since the first century AD. And given the known ability for the great Bordeaux to age gracefully, one can believe it.
French Wine Regions: Alsace
Wine makers in Alsace have been active since the Roman conquest.
The Alsatians themselves are a mixed French-Germanic lot, with many of the older inhabitants still speaking Alsatian, a Germanic dialect, at home. Despite living in the smallest wine making region in France, these proud people rightfully boast of their centuries old wine making traditions.
Germany’s Major Wine Making Districts
Germany has hundreds of wine festivals every year. But to provide all that fun requires an even larger amount of hard work in its justly world-famous vineyards.
