VISIT FRANCE & THE FAMOUS FRENCH WINE REGIONS

Puligny Montrachet vineyards in Burgundy

Photo source: Wine Keller

Select a French wine region for your next wine tour inspiration!

Which are the best French wine regions to explore?

France is the spiritual home and birthplace of wine. It produces wine in greater quantities than any other country (except sometimes Italy), but it is the home of many ‘exceptional’ wines and France sets the standard and the benchmark for wine quality.

‘Terroir’ is everything and France is blessed with a geography which encourages vines to prosper. With the cooling Atlantic, the warm Mediterranean and a rich variety of soils, French vineyards are some of the best in the World.

In the face of growing competition, especially from the New World, France has been fairly slow to innovate, on one hand being somewhat restricted by its wine laws, but also preferring to make wines which are true to nature and not designed to necessarily appeal to human taste and the desire to drink them immediately!

Whatever your wine taste, every wine lover and wine tourist should make time to explore France’s wine regions and discover the best French vineyards and French wines!

Bordeaux vineyards & chateaux — *The vineyards and chateaux of Bordeaux*

French wine regions map

There are approximately 17 French wine regions - some are world-famous, some less so.

Regardless, they each produce very distinctive wines, all of which are rigidly defined and classified according to French wine laws, which over the years have acted as the templates for many other wine regions in the world (see below).

You will undoubtedly be familiar with these famous French wine regions and their wines and if you haven't toured one or more already, will certainly be planning to do so!

The French wine regions include:

Alsace, Armagnac and Cognac, Beaujolais and Lyonnais, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Corsica, Jura, Languedoc, Lorraine, Poitou-Charentes, Provence, Roussillon, Savoie and Bugey, South-West, Loire Valley, and the Rhône Valley.

Wine Tourism in France

There is so much for wine tourists to enjoy in France. In terms of packaged wine tours of France, there are many to choose from and if you prefer to go solo, there is tons of information and advice about where to explore.

The more famous French wine regions and French estates and vineyards, especially in regions like Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne are well advanced in offering packaged wine tastings and wine tours, often for quite a high price - in fact approximately 10,000 French wineries are open for visits in France and almost 10 million people visit them each year (40% of whom are foreign tourists).However, many of the smaller, less famous vineyards are not organised to easily welcome visitors!

Our wine tours include examples of both ends of the spectrum, hopefully helping you to plan the perfect wine tour for yourselves!

Visting the Taittinger caves in Champagne — *Visiting the Taittinger caves in Champagne*

French wine types

France is famous world-wide for its regional wine types and styles, for example its red Bordeaux, white and red Burgundies, Beaujolais Nouveau, rosé wines from the Loire and Provence, Champagnes and sweet wines, for example Sauternes. However, France has given us many grape varieties which are now grown successfully all around the world, for example Chardonnay, Pinot noir, Pinot blanc, Syrah..

It would be impossible to list all of the main French wines here, whether famous French red wines or French white wines, so we have gone into a bit more detail on the French region web pages.

French wine classifications

The AC French system of wine classification - AOC (Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée) or AOP (Appellation d’Origine Protégée) - dates back to the 1920s and classifies wines by geography, i.e. where they are made, with strict rules around origin, grape varietal and production method. AC wines include more than a third of all French wine and certainly all of its best wine.

IGP (Indication Géographique Protégée) wines are subject to less stringent rules than AC wines. IGP is an EU denomination and is often applied to areas larger than AC zones, where higher yields are allowed and there is a greater representation of non-traditional grape varieties.

Vin or Vin de France is French wine at its most basic. Again this is an EU denomination, slowly replacing the French Vin de Table classification.

Meursault in Burgundy — *Visiting the famous Meursault vineyards*

*Visiting Châteauneuf-du-Pape in the Southern Rhône*

Roussillon vineyards by the Mediterranean

Planning your French wine tour

As mentioned earlier there are lots of companies offering packaged tours to the famous and best French wine regions - there is not a lack of choice! If you prefer to book a package tour with an established tour company then we could recommend the following:

If you prefer to plan your own tour, then there are lots of options and lots of advice and information out there to help you!

Plan your own French road trip

If you live in Europe you may wish to plan a French road trip in your own car - and having done this ourselves many times, it’s not only tremendous fun, the roads are mostly good, the signposting mostly good and there are lots of choices in terms of places to stay the night along the way. You may wish to book a hotel just off the motorway in a value for money chain like Ibis or treat yourselves in a boutique French hotel, a chambre d’hôte or a historic French chateau!

France fly-drive

Or you could opt to fly to a major French hub and rent a car from there to explore one or more wine regions. There are lots of flight options as France is really well served for flight connections. International flights go to Paris of course, but there are major international hubs in Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Strasbourg, Toulouse and Many smaller cities and towns are served by airports that connect through Paris.

Decide which wine region you want to explore then check out the flight connections for the main cities/towns in or near that region.

Remember France is a large country and it takes at least 12-15 hours to drive from top to bottom non-stop. Take your time and just do one, two or maximum three regions in one go, there’s so much to see!

See our different French wine region website pages and read our suggested wine tour blogs for inspiration, information and advice about which regions to visit, which vineyards to visit and what to see and do in the area!

For more details about the main wine regions, including what to see and do visit ‘About France’.

For accommodation in France ideas take a look at ‘Hotels in France - A guide’.

For general tourist advice visit Explore France.

French wine language

Vin blanc - White wine
Vin rouge - Red wine
Vin rosé - Rosé
Cru - ‘growth’ (a piece of designated land)
Grand cru - ‘great growth’
Premier cru - ‘first growth’

Château - Wine estate (typically in Bordeaux)
Domaine - Vineyard holding (typically in Burgundy)
Cave - cellar or winery
Vigneron - vine grower/wine maker
Vielles vignes - ‘old vines’
Récolte - harvest/vintage