It might seem strange for a publication
distributed mostly in Australia to carry an
article on French wine, or even Old World wine,
surrounded as we are by some of the greatest
wine producing land in the world, but the true
connoisseur doesn’t reckon on borders.
We might with schadenfreude applaud articles in
the paper about French wine producers diverting
their production into vinegar and bio-fuels because
Australian wines have made significant gains in
the all-important UK market, yet we still need the
French wines and the French wine producers to
keep us honest, because that is where the world’s
benchmarks are set to this day.
The grand styles of wine, the classic varietals, the
classic varietal blends, the viticultural techniques,
the vinification, the regional differences and
variations, and the defence of quality against
inferior pretenders – these are all a huge legacy
from the French to the rest of us, and we would
do well to be for ever grateful, and ever
appreciative of the challenge.
This is not to downplay the contribution of the
rest of Europe’s winemakers, nor the advances
in technology wrought in the New World, nor the
Roman Empire that brought the idea to France
in the first place, but it is the French who first
perfected the art as we know it today. French
wine is not as accessible as Australian wine
– there are more than 32,000 different wines for
a start, by 6,000 producers, most of them tiny.
And the labels are in French. The appellations
and classifications are archaic, vary from region
to region and are impenetrable to the outsider. On
the other hand, almost none of these wines leave
France. The wines that do leave are either mass-
produced indifferent wines, cheaply produced for
the indiscriminate; Mouton Cadet for example,
produced by the million. Or they are the world’s
best, produced in small quantities and sought
after by connoisseurs everywhere.
So where does the Australian resident who wishes
to appreciate French wine go, to taste, to buy and
to