How to read a wine bottle label - quick tips on areas, grapes

Your wine bottle could be a mere vin de pays, (wine of a country), vine de France, wine from France. Or it could be a regional brand, whose name is only permitted by copanies in the country or region, using specified ingredients, so that buyers know what they are getting from a group of producers, and get the same drink, more or less, year after year.

The UK term is PDO which stands for Protected Designation of Origin. 

Think of it as the district where your wine originates.

The European area uses the term AOP, French for Appelation 'D'Origin Protegee.

However the French themselves have an extra abbreviation, ADC using the word for controlled.

The Italians and Spanish use another set of letters, DOC, denominazione origin control ....

When you see these three letters, look for the coutnry, region or area your wine comes from.

It helps to know which names are places and which are grapes. 

Confusingly Prosecco for a long time was both a place name and a grape from that area of Italy.

Also the same grape has different names in different countries.

I like sweet wines and know to look for doux, literally soft, which means sweet, to avoid brut, like brutal, is dry.

Myfavourite grapes and regions for sweet wine are muscat from any country, Gewurttraminer (German for spicy), Sauternes (slightly sweet) from France, and Beaunes de Venise, but I have  an older one. 

Most lovers of French red wines go for burgundy,  which is dark red, burgundy colour, or Bordeaux, from western France's coast, whose name means border of the water. Eau is water, as in Eau de Cologne, water from Cologne, the German city, toilet water, not water from a toilet but a less expensive and less aromatic kind of mild perfume, for your skin, not to drink. The place name has an x, like the English s, for plural. Eaux is waters.

Champagne

We have done wine tasting trips around Rheims, near Paris, the Champagne region. The big houses usually have orgnaised timed tours with a guide in your chosen language and make a charge which includes a tasting and or disocunt on bottles at the end.

Languedoc

We recently did a tour of the southern France region around Montpellier and Beziers. Websites tell you whether you are visiting a shop which is open to people who drop in, or a windery, where you have to book a visit to be sure somebody will be there, and to get directions.  (Sometimes a gale blows down the sign or a rival winery will remove a street sign.) 

We went around the Languedoc area in January 2024. Languedoc means the land of the language oc, ocitaine. 

Languedoc region of southern France.

You can book wine tours around a region, for a half day, a whole day, or a  week, which allows you to drink and leave the driving to somebody else.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_designation_of_origin

https://www.bordeaux-tourism.co.uk/

https://www.bordeaux-tourism.co.uk/bordeaux-vineyards-and-wines

More details

Vineyard

Caitriana Nicholson from 北京 ~ Beijing, 中国 ~ China - Vineyard

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. For more about wine tasting in southern France, see my next post.

Prowine for fun wine and food at Expo - innovation, low waste replacing bottles, no and low alcohol, and the broken heart brand

 

Who would be interested in Prowine, which is a trade show for food and wine? The exhibitors looking for people to represent them, to sell their products in Singapore and around the world. restauranteurs looking for equipment, chefs looking for equipment and food, shopkeepers looking for new products to stock. Organizers of wine events, such as wine clubs and large clubs. On the fringes are journalists, bloggers, entrepreneurs looking for products, services and ideas, and people who want to invest in buying wine.

If you have a chance to go, do so. Sign up online. If you don't qualify, or don't have time, I can tell you what I learned at the masterclsses on day one and what I saw around the show.

The Masterclasses

Day 1 Tuesday

Leading Ladies from the World of Wines & Spirits

Burgundy

Getting to Grips with Generation Z and their values

Demystifying The Malaysian Wine market

The Growing demand for non-alcoholic spirits

Day 2 Wednesday

Sherry

Sake can it be aged

Broken Heart Spirits - Award Winning Brand from New Zealand

New World Wines

Tequila and Mezqual

Day 3 Thursday

Online wine booming in SE Asia and how you can be part of it

B2B cream liqueurs

Ecospirits low waste distribution

Sake blending

The rise of marselan in China

Day 4 Friday

Yebisu Draft Beer (and beer glass offer

Sakes harmonised with local food

Whisky blending

Secrets of blogging and photographing food

A Tour of France - where to go? When?

 

The flag of France

Our friend has asked for advice on where to visit in France, by train, majoring on two locations. Her first thought was Paris and Alsace. She wants to be somewhere warm. On second thoughts she has struck off Paris and Alsace and because she like wine, she is heading south to Burgundy and Bordeaux.  

My family replied:

Yes, avoid Paris in August. Why? Because the restaurant owners and people head off to the cooler coast and the beaches when it is stifling hot in the city of Paris in August. 

However, do consider Alsace. It has beautiful scenery and architecture. It is also a renowned wine centre.

France is a huge country. Bordeaux on the west coast is a long way from Burgundy in the east. Bordeaux has vineyards spaces out along the banks of the river, all rather separate. You would want a whole week to do justice to Bordeaux. You cannot do the whole thing in half a day. The famous places are hard to visit unless you are on a guided tour, or guide yourself in a hire car.

Useful Websites

https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/coming-to-france/coming-to-france-your-covid-19-questions-answered/

Author

About the Author Angela Lansbury

BIOGRAPHY

Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5 
The Author of several books including  Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.

Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President

Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time 

Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;

Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;

Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.

More details from Toastmasters International find a club.

Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.

Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.

Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.

Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.

Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.

Language and speech workshops in Singapore.

Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.

Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.

Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.

Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

Books by Angela Lansbury
How to be the best man. (Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Wedding Speeches and Toasts.(Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Unforgettable British Weekends.
Poetry Workshop Workbook.
The Tailor and the Spy. (Lulu.)
Larry The Talking Labrador. (Lulu.)
Writing Poetry for fun.

Quick Quotations

Who Said What When

 

Where are Burgundy and Bordeaux wines from? And what is a c a n e l é ?

I went to a wine tasting of French wines. We merrily debated whether wine should accompany food, or whether food should accompany wine!

The tasting was organised by a wine tasting club, which holds meetings at the back room of the Fulham Wine Rooms (restaurant, bar and wine shop) in Fulham, London, England.

We arrived to find wine glasses ready and waiting on a numbered sheet. A side plate had the sharp blue cheese to contrast and sweet small cakes to go with the wines.

The sweet wines we tasted were from Sauternes and other places in the Bordeaux region of France. Sauternes is a village in the south-west of France, in the Sauternes region. The Americans use the word sauternes with a small s to mean a sweet wine resembling wine from Sauternes.

However, the French protect the term which can be used only to describe wines from that region.

Sauternes, Barsac, and Cadillac are all in Bordeaux, which means the border on the water, or the river or seaside.

I tried eight sweet wines at a wine tasting club, which met at the Fulham Wine rooms (described in an earlier post).

My favourite sweet wines, both from The Sampler, which has branches in Islington in North London, and Wimbledon in south London. The one which was best value (the cheaper of the two), cost £10. It was Ch. Inc Hilhs Liquoreux 2011 Saint - M a c a i r e AC, a 75 cl bottle.

It tasted too sweet against a blue Roquefort cheese, better matched with the c a n e l é.

(I have inserted spaces because a spell checker changes the words after I have finished.)

C a n e l é
The French word ends with an accent on the e, an acute accent, making the e sound like an ay, with you your voice rising as if asking a question 'eh?'

This is a French tiny cake, well cooked, supposedly flavoured with rum. (I could not taste the alcohol, but it was a sweet little cake.)

(Not to be confused with the similar sounding Italian cannoli which is a cannon-shaped rolled sheet of pasta, as used around a meat or spinach filling in canneloni.)

My other equal favourite of the sweet wines, also bought from The Sampler wine shop, cost £35 and was Ch. Lamothe-Guignard 2003 2me Grand Cru Classé Sauternes AC. However, we had two bottles of this wine and both tasted different, maybe from two different barrels. One looked pinker than the other, and one was more grape-y. I had the second quality bottle, in most people's opinion, but I thought it was still great.

However, on price alone, I think the other bottle was quite good enough, and a much better price.

Best value, 5 - cinq is French for five.

Compare the wines. They look different colours.

This is the dearer of my two favourites, £35, and it was everybody's favourite.

BURGUNDY
Burgundy is diagonally north west of France, towards Germany and Geneva in Switzerland. (I use the g in Burgundy, Geneva and Germany to link the three places.)

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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Beaujolais Nouveau - today and tomorrow - the race and the place

Beaujolais Nouveau - Beginner's Guide
Today (I started writing midnight November 18) and tomorrow (I finished writing after breakfast November 19) let's celebrate success.

What's Happening? Breakfast and Beaujolais

The race starts at one minute past midnight, late night Nov 18, tonically first minute of the day on Nov 19 2015. Beaujolais breakfast on Nov 19th at Bangers Restaurant with wine bar in the city, on the corner.

The event is celebrate every year with the arrival in London of the Beaujolais Nouveau, on the 3rd Thursday of November. Yes, one minute past midnight - the race to bring the wine over. From where to where? To England from France.

Why November? The grapes have grown all through summer. You leave them to ripen as long as you can. Then before the winter frost ruins everything (and of course it's bad weather so cold for your staff as well, but that's just incidental,) you bring in the harvest. So it's the new wine, made from this season's grape. it will have reach Bangers by breakfast time tomorrow morning. 

Where is it and what is it

Beaujolais is south of Burgundy sandwiched between Burgundy and the Northern Rhone on the Eastern side of France, south of Paris slightly east. Beaujolais is a red wine made from the gamay grape.  A lighter colour than Burgundy, and less strongly flavoured, more delicate.

The assistant in Morrisons supermarket showed me where to find the Beaujolais, stacked next to Burgundy, if you want to compare. The cheapest bottles of Beaujolais were sold out in the store but the assistant agreed I could probably buy them on line. I didn't check the date on the bottles. 

If you are new to wine, try everything once, to find out what you like within your budget when buying, to find out what you like which is beyond your budget so that when somebody offers to treat you, you can ask for something special and appreciate what they've given you by looking happy and thank them properly with appropriate words for their generosity and good taste.

If you are a connoisseur of wine, you will know that you prefer one wine to another. You might prefer a good wine which is matured in barrels and battles with the addition of oak flavour, time to make the flavour more pronounced, blending with previous years to ensure a consistent flavour and aroma, a balance of flavours and aromas, the deeper colour which comes from ageing. Some people prefer the mature, deep coloured burgundy wines. Others are quit content with the cheaper, fresh off the vine Beaujolais nouveau.

Is it just a marketing exercise? A way to sell cheap wine you could not be bothered to mature, which isn't good enough to mature? If it's just a marketing exercise, or started that way, it's been very successful. And we can't all dash over to the vineyard to taste the new wine. For some people, it's a chance to taste the new wine and say, gosh, it's been great weather for grapes this summer, better than I've tasted in previous years, so this is a great year. For others it's just a case of, finish up the old wine, here's the new lot. For the growers of course, they've picked the grapes, put the wine in the bottle, and got it to your table. They've survived storms and strikes and setbacks and brought you a bottle of wine, to celebrate with you.

So, let's drink to that. (I personally, would not drink at breakfast, except once a year. I once went to a hotel which served a champagne breakfast. Those of us who like to work start the year as we mean to go on, with an early night and no alcohol until after the working day.  More American than French. But if it gets the winemaker's picture in the papers, good for them.

More information from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaujolais

Angela Lansbury. Travel writer and photographer. Author and speaker.

Burgundy's Reproduction Medieval Castle (work in progress!) now on BBC TV

Want to know how to build a medieval castle? (For the man who has everything.) You can't get it in time for Christmas because they are still building it. (I know - building work always takes forever.) 

At the World Travel Market I stopped at the Burgundy stand and I wrote up my account of the medieval castle building in one of my travel posts for you.
Now Mr Christopher Kelly has written to tell me you can see it on TV.

The BBC 2 series "The secrets of the Castle" at 9pm next Tuesday, 18th November.  The last of the five programmes includes sequences filmed in Vezelay http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04sv5nc 
Should you urgently need any information, please contact us.Chalon : Jérome Marché, Tel : + 33 (0)3 85 46 65 89 jeromemarche@achalon.com    www.achalon.com 
Guédelon : Sarah Preston, Tel : + 33 (0)3 86 45 69 15 sarah.preston@guedelon.fr    www.guedelon.frVézelay : Agnès Millot, Tel : + 33 (0)3 86 33 23 69 , vezelay.otsi@wanadoo.fr    www.vezelaytourisme.com

Burgundy is in France. Take a look at this map. It's nearer to the Channel ports than I remembered. If you've driven south through France down east from the Paris area towards Chamonix for skiing you may have passed though Dijon, or you might wish to take this route on your next trip.

I must admit I could not place Vezelay. You've probably heard of Santiago de Compostela. Santiago is Saint John translated into another language. The basilica is a pilgrimage point and   

a world heritage site.

More travel information on the Basilica you can visit in Vezelay:

http://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Vézelay

Burgundy's Building A Mock Medieval Castle (news from World Travel Market)

Burgundy, the region of France, already famous for the burgundy colour, and burgundy wine, dark red wine, has now another distinction, the new old castle. They are building a mock medieval castle. They've been building for about ten years and reckon it will take about another ten. You can watch work in progress at Guedelon.

Drink burgundy wine.
More details from:
www.guedelon.fr
Sarah Preston international press community manager +33 3 86 45 69 15

French Wines: Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne - Beginner's Guide

FRANCE & French Wines
  Three very popular wines from France are Champagne, Bordeaux and Burgundy.

Champagne
Napoleon said 'In victory you deserve it; in defeat you need it'.
I first discovered this quotation when researching an article on Champagne cellar visits for Take A Break magazine. I now have several quotations on wines in my book Quick Quotations, and I am researching another book on quotations. Now back to some facts on champagne.

Champagne is a sparkling wine from the region of Champagne in the north of France. The area is not far from Paris and is one of the nearest wine regions to the ports in Northern France and the ports in Southern England. The Champagne growers chief market was originally Britain. Famous Champagne houses include Moet et Chandon. Famous ladies in the old days were Veuve Cliquot and Madame Lilly Bollinger.

You can take tours around the champagne houses of Rheims and Epernay.

Bordeaux
  Bordeaux is the region on the border of the water (French for water is eau, the water l'eau, of the water, d'eau, of the waters d'eaux x being plural).
SW coast.
For easy to read information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bordeaux

Burgundy
East.
  Burgundy - dark red, wine colour.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgundy_wine

Follow the links and you will find more links to
http://www.france.fr/en/art-and-culture/quiz-great-french-authors-and-their-masterpieces.html

 I have other posts on wines, wine cellar tours, port and sherry.
Books by Angela Lansbury on Lulu.com
Also see Angela Lansbury author on Facebook and LinkedIn and You tube.
Talks on wine tasting by Angela at toastmasters International. Angela Lansbury is Past President of Harrovians Toastmasters Speakers Club in London, past and present committee member of HOD Toastmasters Speakers Club in London, and past member of several clubs in Singapore, and visitor to clubs in China and Thailand.)