France

France is the reference point for the rest of the wine world, and not because its wine is always better. It is because France wrote the vocabulary. Cabernet sauvignon, merlot, chardonnay, pinot noir, syrah, sauvignon blanc and chenin blanc are all French in origin, and all seven are now planted on every continent that grows wine. When a Chilean bottle says cabernet sauvignon, or an Australian one says shiraz, it is using a French noun to describe a French cutting.

The second French invention is the appellation. From 1935 the country began to define wine by where it comes from rather than by what is in it, and to write the permitted grapes, yields and methods into law for each named place. That is why a bottle of Chablis does not say chardonnay on the front. The place name is a promise about the grape, and the label assumes you know it. Learning French wine is mostly learning which grape hides behind which place.

Climate splits the country in two. The north is cool and marginal: Champagne, Chablis, Alsace, the Loire and Burgundy make wines built on acidity, where the difference between a good and a poor vintage is large and visible. The south is Mediterranean: the Rhone valley, Languedoc, Roussillon and Provence ripen grenache, syrah and mourvedre reliably, and the wines are warmer, rounder and less vintage-dependent. Bordeaux sits in between, on the Atlantic, which is why it hedges by blending several grapes that ripen at different times.

For a buyer, the useful rule is that French labels reward one hour of study more than almost any other country. The regional name tells you the grape and the style. Once you know that Sancerre is sauvignon blanc, Chablis is chardonnay, Chinon is cabernet franc and Cornas is syrah, a wall of unfamiliar bottles becomes readable.