France is a superpower as far as wine is concerned. The French's are known to produce at least 200 varieties, an endless array of styles, and a unique quality control system which rules the whole wine industry.

French wine in Australia is labeled differently. Australian producers generally label their wine by the grape variety which makes it easy to identify what you are searching for. French producers, as most Europeans do, label their wine by the region with often no mention of the grape variety.

The basic step to ease the purchase of a French wine is understanding the main wine styles each region produces and the grape used. Below are the two categories of famous French wines that are sold in Australia.

White Wine

The custom here is unique in that the grape varieties appear on the label, beginning at Alsace. If you do prefer to explore minerality, then choose the Muscadet, the wines are right, focused, high in acid and peculiarly mineral. You can also choose to go for the Vouvray, which is produced from Chenin blanc and available in ‘sec’ (dry) or ‘demi-sec’ (off-dry).

For fuller bodied, more serious wines, start by exploring the white Burgundy, made from Chardonnay. The main villages that are famous for this wine variant include Meursault, St. Aubin, Chassagne-Montrachet, macon, etc. Each with their own identity, however, as new generations become involved, the village typicality is less predictable than it has been. Making an assumption about a village style is tricky.

Red Wine

 With almost 80, 000 hectares of vine, the Rhone valley produces mainly red wines and a smattering of the white type. In total, the north accounts for only 5 percent of the total wine volume but makes up for it in price. This is mostly based around the Syrah, Shiraz grapes which are deeply colored, dense, long-lived wines with black characters.

The southern Rhone has fewer appellations, and tend to produce a lot of wine under the village names Cote Du Rhone and Cotes Du Rhone which are easier to access and generally retailed for under 40 dollars.

The region of Languedoc Roussillon is responsible for a third of France wine production.

Officially separate regions but generally considered as one, the dominant grape varieties are Carignan, Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Cinsault, Cabernet, Sauvignon, and Merlot. The high volume of low-quality wine is produced here. However, there is a significant movement toward quality especially the exported wines.

Warm climate produces juicy, dense, extremely likable wine which are often competitive in terms of price. The wines of Bordeaux are most often blended with the reds being classically a base blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, which are very complimentary.

Bordeaux uses a producer rating system of First to Fifth Growth (a total of only 54 producers) which are collectively considered iconic.  Outside of this system, most wines which make it to Australia are labeled at Cru Bourgeois or Bordeaux Superior.

No matter the variant of wine you are looking for, we are the biggest French wine importers and you now buy French wine online in Australia.