Here we go into the Right Bank of Bordeaux and associated appellations. If you’ve not yet read either my France Overview or my Bordeaux Overview, please do so, as there are a lot of key terms and concepts covered there that will help make sense of this post. I’ve also already covered the Left Bank of Bordeaux here.
Included is also a look at the Entre-deux-Mers as well as the sweet wine appellations of Bordeaux—Sauternes, Barsac, and other, smaller sweet AOCs.
Alright cool kids, here we go, diving right into France‘s most popular region—Bordeaux. If you’ve not read my generic France Overview, definitely do. I cover a few key terms that will be important to know going forward.
Here we’re going to cover a lot of information as it pertains to Bordeaux as a whole. Separately, we’ll dive into the Left and Right Banks and take a look at the specific AOCs, crus, wine styles etc.
I’m going to start diving into a few more French wine regions, so I’d like to include a brief overview of France as a wine producing country. Included are a few key terms, a short history lesson, and some fun (and funny) wine facts.
A few weeks ago I participated in a virtual “getaway” to Bourgogne. My tour and tasting was lead by the always energetic award-winning sommelier and “virtual experience guru” Belinda Chang, along with expert Bourgogne consultant Anette Hanami. We also had a few guest speakers native to the region, including Anne Moreau from the Domaine Louis Moreau.
Of course, a virtual media tour is nothing like the real deal. But the event, hosted by Sopexa, was not just a lively discussion on Bourgogne as a whole, but a detailed breakdown of region’s nuanced classification system.
To discuss everything we learned would take several lengthy posts. So, I’m not going to do that. But what I do want to share are the two wines I received in conjunction with this event. In order to divide Bourgogne into digestible parts, we were split into “teams,” each of which focused on a separate region. I, along with three other women in wine, was on team Hautes Côtes de Beaune. The following two wines are just a small sip of what I experienced during Soprexa‘s “Escape to Bourgogne.”
Enjoy!
As some of you may (or may not) know, I’m currently studying for my WSET Diploma. As part of the program, I’m conducting regular tastings that coincide with the program requirements for each unit. This is was the motivation behind tasting this wine—because it’s certainly a wine that I personally would reach for on a normal day. That being said, I was excited to see Rosé d’Anjou on the list because I’ve never actually tasted one before. Anjou is a region of the middle Loire Valley and this style of rosé is unique to the region. So, let’s have a taste…
