The Hindu Business Line : A sparkling experience

What makes French wine the prima donna of all wines? Is it the passion or the manner of cultivation? Wine expert Daniele Raulet-Reynaud takes you on a wine tasting tour of France.

If your bar stocks champagne that was made in California or Italy, then you seriously need a lesson or two in wine appreciation. "Because champagne can only be from the Champagne region in France," says Daniele Raulet-Reynaud, a French wine expert. Similarly, other wines such as Bordeaux, Beaujolais, Burgundy or Chablis are named after the place of their origin. During her recent three-city tour, Madame Daniele, the only woman Maitre d' Hotel of France, trained a select band of Indians in the fine art of selecting wines and matching them with food. Participants also learnt to pronounce and understand wine labels such as Terroir, AOC, Grand Cru, Chateau and Vintage.

In its 3,000-year history of grape-growing and wine-making, France has seldom relaxed rules: Vineyards are still found alongside a river, only rains can water the creepers and certain grapes can be grown only in certain regions. There's one change though that is slowly creeping in; in the last 30 years, the use of pesticides has been completely forbidden. "We only have organic vineyards now and very little chemical is used while fermenting the wine," she says.

Before selecting a wine, it's important to familiarise oneself with the country's oenological industry, she says. According to a French saying, there are as many wines in France as there are vineyards and, as Daniele puts it, "there are thousands of them." But the Appelation d'Origine Controlee (AOC), which is a controlling body of the industry, recognises only about 97 distinct appellations or varieties of wines.

The AOC status for a wine is a prestigious recognition and is granted after weighing several considerations such as soil type, grape varieties, production techniques, harvesting and vinification techniques employed by the winemaker. Before the AOC status is granted, tasting and analysis is carried out to establish the authenticity and quality of wines.

Then there's the concept of `Terroir', which has no equivalent in English, she says. It indicates an optimum quality of wine derived from grapes grown under the best of conditions. An understanding of this concept and you're initiated into the world of wines.

French wine history has come through an interesting and unusual route. The grape, which originated in Mongolia, travelled through India to Persia and finally reached the Mediterranean region in France. The grapes first arrived in Marseilles and then travelled up north. It's interesting to note that neither the fruit nor the art of wine making is indigenous to that country. "The science and art of wine making was taught to us by the Greeks and the Romans," she says. The French, of course, mastered it. Today, France commands nearly 23 per cent of the world wine market. The wine industry provides livelihood to nearly 20 per cent of its population.

So what makes French wine the prima donna of all wines? Perhaps it's the passion and regimen with which the French make it. They not only grow their grapes under the best conditions, they also harvest them with equal care. While other countries have two or three harvesting seasons, France has only one — in September.

Even the manner in which the creepers are pruned does make a difference to fruit quality, says Daniele. The plants are pruned very short in France. This, of course, results in a yield that is three times lesser than that of Australia, but the fruit is of a higher quality. In fact, the Bordeaux region alone has marginally more hectares of vines than in all of Australia.

`Vintage' indicates the year of harvest of the grapes. Vintage wine is generally three years old and non-vintage about a year old. With this basic savoir-faire (know how) of the vinification industry, she feels one is ready to study the wine list of that country.

Champagne: Pronounced `Shaumpain', this is the only sparkling wine in the world. "Anything else is either sparkling or just wine," she says. Champagne comes from the north of France where it's very cold. A monk discovered the recipe for champagne, when he accidentally mixed wine with sugar. To be labelled `champagne,' the wine goes through a second fermentation with sugar and yeast, and is stored in a dark, cool place for 9-12 months.

Over the years, three grape varieties have matched perfectly with Champagne's soil, climate and microclimate: pinot noir, pinot meunier (both black grapes) and chardonnay (white grapes). Champagne, famous for its bubbles, is considered authentic only if the bubbles rise in one string and form a ring at the rim. Champagne is best served as an aperitif, accompanied with oysters.

Alsace: Comes from the Alsace region that is five km wide and 200 km long. The region has a huge temperature variance ranging from -15 degrees Celsius in winter to 35 degrees Celsius in summer. Contrary to other wine regions of France, the wines of Alsace are not named after villages or the vineyards, but after the grape varieties, which are basically of seven kinds: Riesling, muscat d'alsace, tokay pinot gris, gewurztraminer, pinot noir, pinot blanc and sylvaner. Here, all wine, by law, should be bottled in the region of production in the traditional slender green Alsace bottle. This wine goes best with foie gras (geese liver).

Loire: The Loire valley produces dry and crisp white wines. Some of the varieties are sancarre, pouilly-fume and muscadet. Sweeter wines in Vouvray are made from the chenin blanc grape. The valley also produces the rose d' anjou, a special roses and light ruby red wine. Generally wines from this region are very fruity and aromatic.

Bordeaux: Produces the famous rich and honeyed dessert wine, sauterne. In wine language it's called le vin de dessert. The crucial aspect of this wine is that the fruit should be harvested at the right moment. Generally, a fungus (botrytis cinerea) is allowed to attack the fruit and when the fruit becomes as large as a mango, is squeezed dry to make sauterne.

It is often said that Bordeaux was predestined to produce the world's greatest wines. The region is endowed with 1.13 lakh hectares of wine-growing area recognised by the AOC. The region also produces dry white wines such as graves and entre-deux-mers.

Beaujolais: Most of the wines of this region are red, with tiny amounts of rose and white. These wines are to be consumed young and fresh. What is unique about Beaujolais wines is the technique used by winemakers called carbonic maceration - a fermentation process used to make light red wines with intense colour, fresh fruity flavour and low tannins. Beaujolais nouveau is the first young wine of the year's harvest, barely 10 weeks old and shipped around the world with much fanfare and hoopla.

Cotes du Rhone: There are 21 grape varieties that go into the making of these wines, though not all at the same time. Depending on the location and the rules governing the particular appellation, the winemaker may choose any number of these varieties. Though cotes du rhone is by far the most popular wine made in the southern Rhone, the undisputed king is chateauneuf du pape, a red wine made by blending as many as 13 grape varieties. It takes its name from the 14th-century event when Pope Clement V set up a residence in Avignon.

Picture by K. Murali Kumar

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