France

• Alsace
• Bergerac
• Bordeaux
  • Barsac
  • Bordeaux Supérieur
  • Margaux
  • Graves
  • Haut-Medoc
  • Listrac
  • Pauillac
  • Pomerol
  • Saint Emilion
  • Saint Estephe
  • Saint Julian
  • Sauternes
• Burgundy
  • Beaujolais
  • Bourgogne
  • Chablis
  • Côte de Nuits
  • Mercurey
• Cahors
• Champagne
• Cognac
• Corsica
• Gascony
• Jura
  • Arbois
• Languedoc-Roussillon
  • Minervois
• Loire Valley
  • Bourgueil
  • Jasnières
  • Muscadet
  • Mont Louis
  • Sancerre
  • Saumur
  • Savennières
  • Touraine
  • Vouvray
• Rhone (Rhône)
  • Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  • Cornas
  • Crozes-Hermitage
  • Gigondas
  • Hermitage
  • Lirac
  • Saint Joseph
• Provence
  • Bandol
• Savoie
• Tavel

Once one gets past the classified and top wines, Bordeaux makes a lot of wine and decent pricing that is very good.  This is 100% Merlot from Bordeaux.  Purple in color with ruby hues, mostly opaque and bright.  The nose is deep with black cherries, char, and baking spice.  Medium bodied.  Medium tannins.  Moderate acidity.  On the palate, black cherry fruit with some spice and a bit of char/smoke.  Good finish.  This drinks nicely on its own but would be better with food.  A nice match might be a Chicken Pot Pie.  Drink over the next seven to ten years.  

This is Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire Valley in France.  Straw gold in color, clear and bright.  The nose is nice with a touch of lemons along with plenty of minerality.  Medium bodied.  Excellent balance and acidity.  On the palate, the minerality dominates but there is some lemon as well.  Clean, long finish.  This is nice on its own but probably better with food.  It would work well with fresh, Oysters.  Drink over the next few years.  

This bottle was oxidized.  Deep golden in color.  A fair amount of oak showing but no fruit.  A shame as there is often great value in the under $30 world of Bordeaux.  It is a blend of 80% Semillon and 20% Sauvignon Blanc.  The cork looked fine but something went wrong somewhere.  The current vintage is 2023, but even at age six years from vintage, it seems it should still be drinking well.  Oh well.  

Made with grapes mostly grown in Tourraine but labelled Vin de France.  Light silvery/green in color, clear and bright.  The nose is nice.  Slightly grassy with touch of tropical fruit and minerality.  Medium bodied.  Good balance.  On the palate, the tropical fruit comes thru along with a bit of almond especially on the finish.  This drinks easily on its own and would work well with lighter foods.  It would work well with vegetarian Thai Food.

This was not a proper bottle.  It had a lot of froth and bubbles and there should not have been any.  My pour was one of the first and no off flavors were detected that might have suggested refermentation in the bottle, but the amount of bubbles was for too much to just  be trapped CO2.  Others who sampled from farther into the bottle noted off flavors and lots of "crud" in the bottle.  Not sure how prevalent this will be, but buyer beware.  

This is getting a bit old in the tooth but still had something to offer.  Golden in color, clear and bright.  The nose is clean (no diesel) with slight grapefruit.  Medium bodied.  On the palate, very slight oxidation with some peach notes.  A bit bitter on the finish.  These are past prime if this bottle was representative but just a bit and should be consumed sooner than later.  It is very food friendly and worked nicely with Nachos.