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Where to find the best white wine? The South of France boasts many great white wines
France, a wine-producing country par excellence, produces an incredible quantity of fine white wines Whether traditionally, organically or biodynamically grown. It's hardly surprising, then, that France produces some of the finest white wines in the world. As with all white wines, the best bottles are beautifully fresh, often with an invigorating hint of acidity. Its aromas and flavors hark back to its origins, terroir and flora.
The best white wines are those that have succeeded in brilliantly combining the cultivation of a quality grape variety with tailor-made vinification to bring out the grape's full potential. This is the case, for example, with white wines such as Tariquet Premières Grives, Côtes-du-Rhône's AOC Condrieu or Savoie's Chignin Bergeron. Each region has its own terroir and characteristics, and this is what makes France so extraordinary, producing some of the world's finest white wines.
To understand the heterogeneity of French white wines, it's enough to go from a southwestern wine like a Côtes-de-Gascogne to an Alsace wine like a Gewurztraminer. It's also clear that organic white wines but also biodynamic white wines, deliver different aromas to traditional white wines, being purer, better structured, less alcohol-driven and more fruit-driven. Barrel ageing brings a woody touch, which can be transformed into delicious toasted, toasted or brioche flavours.
A good example of a best white wine and a great French white wine would surely be a bottle of Cigalus a top-of-the-range white wine from the south of France, with silky, full-bodied flavors 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 vineyards in particular. This is how the importance of vintages comes into play, depending on the weather during the year, from spring to late summer, and even early autumn for late-harvest wines (particularly for Alsace wines and sweet and syrupy white wines).
It's easy to understand that a mild spring accompanied by a hot, dry summer (but not too hot) will produce better quality grapes than a year with a cold spring, late frosts and a summer with very little sunshine. As each wine-growing region has its own climate and each grape variety its own ideal climatic conditions, good years in north-eastern France will not necessarily be the same as those in south-western France.
An atypical winery like Château La Sauvageonne produces, for example, an excellent AOP Languedoc white wine with organic (AB) and biodynamic (Demeter) labels, strong character, generosity, amplitude and freshness. If we were to compare the years, the 2018 vintage is notably an excellent year for the Rhône Valley, Burgundy and Languedoc-Roussillon, the 2016 for Bordeaux and Loire Valley wines. As for the 2019 vintage, it was an excellent year for just about every wine-growing region in France.
The main white wine grape varieties
Chardonnay, Pinot blanc, Sauvignon blanc, Grenache blanc, Riesling and Gewurztraminer are the best-known grape varieties for makingwhitewine, and account for the vast majority ofFrench white wine production. Other, lesser-known and too-often neglected grape varieties are also worth highlighting, such as Viognier (a wine from the south of France), Savagnin (used in particular to produce Vin Jaune du Jura), Aligoté (a cousin of Chardonnay) and Gros Manseng (a grape from the Pyrenees used to produce Jurançon).
A selection of our best white wines
Our wine presentation pages :
The different colors of wine : red wine, white wine, rosé wine, orange wine
Our selection of the best Gérard Bertrand wines:
Discover the Gérard Bertrand family business :
Its wineries in the Occitanie region,
Its expertise in organic wine and biodynamic wine,
Its ecological values.
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