Wine in France

Automne

2012

Automne

2012

Wine in France - Intercultural conversation

Julien Lemonnier & Bastien Vigouroux

Wine in France - Intercultural conversation

Julien Lemonnier & Bastien Vigouroux

Turku University of Applied Sciences

Turku University of Applied Sciences

Introduction

The wine is very important in French culture, which is why we chose it. We thought it was interesting to show how the French consume wine and it measures. But also to fall down any prejudices about wine and French.

We started with a little game of question and answer about wine and French; for example, we wanted to be sure everyone knew that the champagne have to be produced in the region champagne.

That our subject is the clearer and interesting as possible we focused on the economics of wine, or its production, its economy and consumption. We also wanted to show how to taste wine in the "rules of art" but for lacks of mean we couldn’t do this part.

Production

France is currently the world’s number one producer of wine by volume with almost 47 million hectoliters in 2009, just ahead Italy, Spain and USA. Nearly every type of wine imaginable is made in styles that vary from modern to very traditional. The top wine regions are Alsace, Bordeaux, Bourgogne, Champagne, Loire, Rhone Valley, Provence and Languedoc-Roussillon. But the France get a lot of other little regions who make a famous wine, “Sud-Ouest”, “Centre”, Lorraine, Corse, Jura, Savoie. Actually 16 of the 22 french area produce wine, for a total of 786156 hectares only for production.

When it comes to what is grown in each wine region, the French have very strict controls on the varietals that go into any wine under the AOC system. Some regions are more clearly defined by a single varietal. Other regions grow a very wide variety of grapes and blends are common.

Some of France’s most famous wine regions and wines are:

Alsace – White wines made from Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and...