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French Wine
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France has a long a fruitful history with wine, going back as far as its Greek colonization it has been a massive area for wine production.


France produces between 50 million and 60 million hectoliters per year, that’s 7-8 million bottles, and as a whole has the world’s second-largest total vineyard area, behind Spain, and is the largest producer of wine. France is now at the forefront of winemaking, and until 2008 were unmatched by any country, however, that year Italy had produced more wine, however France is once again the largest producer.


French Red Wine grapes include ‘Merlot’, ‘Grenache’, ‘Syrah’, ‘Carignan’ and ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’. French wine produced is statistically 70% Red and only 30% White wine. Wines are categorized according to the region in which they are cultivated in, for example ‘Champagne’ is wine grown in the Champagne region. The most popular grape variety as of 2007 is the ‘Merlot’ grape. 


French appellation rules restrict wines from each region to a small number of allowed grape varieties, so that there are no varieties of wine grown all the way throughout France and the wines continue to be distinct to each area. These regions are Alsace, a white wine region. Beaujolais, a red wine region, Bordeaux, famous for exporting their wine overseas for many years. Burgundy, where white wines and red wines are equally important, Champagne, home of the famous sparkling wine, Corsica an island, where most of its wine is consumed on the island itself, Jura, a small mountain region, Languedoc-Roussillon is the largest region in terms of vineyard surface and production, for this reason this is where France’s ‘cheap bulk’ of wine is produced. Loire, a white wine valley that stretches along a river of the same name. Provence, which is the warmest wine region of France. Rhone, a red wine valley region. Savoy, A white wine region in the Alps and South-West France, a collection of wine areas. Traditionally France has been the largest consumer of its own wine, however, in recent years there has been a large decline, leading them to focus on the foreign market.


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