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 FRANCE
- MOTHER OF ALL WINES - France
is still known for producing a greater diversity of fine wines than
any country in the world. Great Burgundy wines are almost mythical and
Bordeaux has been the role model for most winemakers anywhere. All the
viticultural methods applied worldwide for the production of great wines,
red or white, are based on French tradition. Nearly all the
internationally recognized classic wine types originated in France. The
greatest wine grape varieties are French, with the exception of Riesling.
(And there is plenty of Riesling in Alsace anyway.) The French, you see,
have had 2000 years of practice at the winemaking art, ever since Rome
conquered Europe through the Mediterranean Basin. The Romans needed wine
for their legions, so they brought to Gaul their winemaking skills and
their tradition of law and order. (Wine only thrives in times of peace.)
Thanks to the quality of their soils and their sense of agriculture, the
Franks soon created vineyards that would outshine even the best Roman
wines. A few hundred years later, the French developed the skills of
traditional agriculture with the help of the Cistercian monks, and they
built up the knowledge of each particular plot of land with impressive
accuracy. That is how the notion of Terroir came into existence.
The monks had plenty of patience (!) so they wrote down and codified
everything. In the slowly evolving world of traditional agriculture, the
value of every individual field came to be learned, generation after
generation, by those who farmed it for their subsistence. By experience
and trial and error, over hundreds of years, cultivators learned to gauge
what crops to plant and how to tend them. A living dialogue between the
soil, the climate and the vines started to develop and expand, with the
farmer as a mediator. If we take a moment and look a little closer to
this notion of Terroir, we will find from the Texan geologist James
Wilson that the soil formation of France is “absolutely unique on the
planet”. In fact, the French geological map reveals all the rock
formations of every single period and era that took place on the planet,
and this explains why the French soil is so fertile and conducive to rich
crops and harvests. France also has the most ideal temperate climate, due
to the combined influence of the Gulf Stream and the prevailing
Westerlies. This has allowed the soil to grow the varieties of Vinis
Vitifera that represent the favorite wine grapes of the world today:
Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Syrah, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc,
Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, Grenache, you name it: they all originated
around 2000 years ago, along the French 45th parallel!
Last but not least, there is the human factor, human skill, ingenuity and
tradition. And for special historical reasons, in the French culture
cooking and winemaking have been elevated to the status of an Art, not a
mere technique. And that spirit has prevailed in France for over a
thousand years, giving birth to the most sophisticated system of culinary
art schools and refined gourmet traditions.
So, however strong may be the challenges and the competition from the rest
of the world, it’s still going to take some time before France’s supremacy
is shaken. Like French cuisine, French wine largely remains the
benchmark against which greatness elsewhere is rated and judged...
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