The Bertrand family
Where to find the best white wine? The South of France has a great many great white wines
France, a wine-producing country par excellence, produces an incredible quantity of good white wines, whether from traditional, organic or biodynamic cultivation. It is therefore no surprise to see France producing the best white wines. Like any white wine, the finest bottles offer a very beautiful freshness, most often with an invigorating touch of acidity. Their aromas and flavours reflect their origins, their terroir and the flora that composes it.
The best white wines are those that have succeeded brilliantly in combining the cultivation of a quality grape variety with a bespoke vinification that conveys the full potential of the grape. This is the case, for example, with certain white wines such as the Tariquet Premières Grives, the AOC Condrieu from the Côtes-du-Rhône or the Savoie wine Chignin Bergeron. Each region has its own terroir and characteristics, which is precisely what makes the French territory so extraordinary and enables it to produce some of the best white wines in the world.
To understand this heterogeneity of French white wines, one need only move, for example, from a south-west wine such as a Côtes-de-Gascogne to an Alsace wine such as a Gewurztraminer. It is also evident that organic white wines, but also biodynamic white wines, deliver different aromas from traditional white wines, being purer, better structured, less focused on alcohol and more fruit-driven. Ageing in barrel adds a woody note, which can develop into delicious toasted, grilled or brioche-like flavours.
A good example of a best white wine and a Grand Vin from France would surely be a bottle of Cigalus from the Gérard Bertrand estates, a premium white wine from the south of France, with silky and ample flavours and intense aromas.
Discover the collection of best white wines from the Gérard Bertrand estates
White wine and vintage
From one year to the next, climatic conditions change, which logically influences the plant world, and in particular, vineyards. This is how the importance of vintages emerges, depending in particular on the weather during the year, from spring through to the end of summer, or even the beginning of autumn for late harvest wines (particularly for Alsace wines as well as sweet and dessert white wines).
It is easy to understand that a mild spring accompanied by a hot and dry summer (but not too much so) produces better quality grapes than a year with a cold spring subject to late frosts and a summer with very little sunshine. As each wine region has its own climate and each grape variety its ideal climatic conditions, the great years for the north-east of France will not necessarily be the same as for the south-west region.
An atypical wine estate such as Château La Sauvageonne produces, for example, an excellent AOP Languedoc white wine certified Organic (AB) and Biodynamic (Demeter), with a strong character, offering generosity, breadth and freshness. If we were to compare years, the 2018 vintage is notably an excellent year for the Rhône Valley, Burgundy and Languedoc-Roussillon, the year 2016 for Bordeaux wines and Loire Valley wines. The 2019 vintage for its part was an excellent year for virtually all wine regions of France.
The main white wine grape varieties
The best-known grape varieties for producing white wine include Chardonnay, Pinot blanc, Sauvignon blanc, Grenache blanc, Riesling and Gewurztraminer, and these make up the vast majority of French white wine production. Other grape varieties, less well known and too often overlooked, also deserve to be brought into the spotlight, such as Viognier (a wine from the south of France), Savagnin (used notably for the production of the yellow wine of the Jura), Aligoté (a grape variety cousin to Chardonnay) or Gros Manseng (a grape variety from the Pyrenees used to produce Jurançon).
A selection of our best white wines
Our presentation pages on wine:
The different colours of wine: red wine, white wine, rosé wine, orange wine
Our selections of the best Gérard Bertrand wines:
Discover the Gérard Bertrand family business:
His wine estates in the Occitanie region,
His expertise in the creation of organic wine and biodynamic wine,
His ecological values.
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