French wine guide and how to drink the French way

France is one of the best wine making countries in the world if not the best. Ok I might be biased as I live in France, but it’s not an unfounded claim – just think Chateauneuf du Pape, Provence rosé, Petrus, Bordeaux, Burgundy and many more famous wines of France. Our French wine guide will reveal the history and legends of French wine, and how to drink the French way – from swirling the glass to how to say cheers!

History of French wine

Wine has been made in France for thousands of years – it’s said that the first vines were planted by Greek settlers in the south as long ago as 600 years BC. The Romans planted vines too when they arrived in France some 550 years later. They established such excellent vineyards in Bordeaux that they wine was exported to Roman troops stationed in what is now Britain. Wine though is much older than that, some historians say the earliest wines go back 8000 years, where, in what is now Georgia, people buried grapes underground to keep them through winter. And voila wine was born. Or – you can listen to other historians who say wine was made even longer ago than that – based on 10,000-year-old grape pips found near Lake Geneva.

Whoever first invented it, we owe them a debt of gratitude. I have a soft spot for French wine – it’s partly responsible for me living in France. It was on a cold and sleety February day that I went with my dad and my husband by ferry from the south coast of the UK to Calais in France to buy French wine. And it was when I first saw the old French farmhouse I now call home. It’s a long story, three books long so far! (You can hear a potted podcast history here).

Most, if not all, French people have a very soft spot for the wine grown in France and absolutely consider it to be the best in the world Wine is drunk with respect. It’s not just poured to the top of a glass and glugged. The wine is poured so that there’s enough room for it to breathe. Then is it is swirled in the glass to release the vapour, all the better to sniff it. And French people talk about what it tastes like – a lot.

I once went to a dinner with French friends in a cosy little restaurant in Burgundy which started with a wine tasting at which we played a game involving choosing from a bundle of cards describing the taste of the wine we had and it included the expressions ‘leather’, ‘flesh’, and ‘barnyard’. They took it seriously.

Wine is in fact a very serious topic for the French! Apparently around 16% of the French drink wine every day, that’s a lot less than 50 years ago. In 1975 your average Frenchie drank 100 litres of wine a year, by 2016 it was 42 litres and it’s still dropping. And France is also the world’s top exporter of wine.

My first memories of drinking wine are aged 14, living with a French family in Antony, in the suburbs of Paris, where I was sent to improve my French language skills (I’m not sure it worked to be honest). I was shocked to be offered a small amount of wine, watered down, with the Sunday dinner. This would never have happened back at home in London. My parents insisted that there would be no alcohol before the legal age of 18. I remember feeling so grown up to taste wine in France though I didn’t like it at all then!

It’s customary to instil in young people a healthy respect and understanding of wine earlier, in the belief that it prevents children from wanting to binge drink. You might be surprised to learn it was only in 1956 that the French Government banned the serving of wine in school canteens! Yes, you read that right, Kids were served wine with their meals at school. Sacre Bleue! I read one newspaper article published in 1956 when the law banned the serving of wine to school children during school hours where it was suggested that cider and beer be served instead.

How to drink wine the French way

In France it’s traditional to drink wine with food. To know how to pair wine properly is considered a skill, and it’s quite normal to go to a wine shop and ask the people who work there to help you to pick a wine to go with the food you’re serving. There are of course wine snobs in France as there are in all countries. But on the whole, the French have a sometimes academic attitude to wine that can seem snooty, but actually has nothing to do with snobbery and everything to do with a true appreciation of the quality.

The French drink different wines according to the season. Rosé in summer, fresh red wines in Autumn, robust reds in winter. It’s quite normal to have a different wine with each course. A sweet white wine with foie gras, a crisp white wine with oysters, white wine with fish, red wine with meat, a floral red with creamy cheeses like Brie and Camembert, sweet wine with dessert. Though don’t go thinking this is an everyday thing, that much layering of wine is for special dinners or at a restaurant where a sommelier, a waiter who is trained as a wine expert, chooses wine to go with the courses.

I’m always amazed at how wine tastes so different according to what you’re eating. In Beaujolais I enjoyed 20 wine tastings including paired with chocolate, cheese, and various other foods and it really isn’t entirely about red with this and white with that, it goes much deeper. Knowing about the wine makes it taste better. Learning about how it’s made, the grape varieties that are used, the history of the vineyards, the history of the people making the wine – it’s a whole cultural thing, it’s not just grape juice in a glass.

When you drink, first swish the glass around gently before smelling the wine and finally taking a sip. This swishing movement is to see if the wine will pleur (which means cry), dripping down the glass like teardrops with perfect consistency. If it doesn’t cry, it’s not considered very good wine. Wine is described according to its robe, which literally translates as to ‘dress’, it’s about the colour, but also the texture on the tongue.

You don’t just say ‘mmm smells nice, tastes good’ you go “its pleuring, it’s crying well, and the robe is divine… oh la la”… Making wine is an art, but also drinking wine is an art.

Wine legends of France

There are a lot of legends about wine in France, in Saint-Emillion for instance they say that on a full moon night, fairies dance among the vineyards and pour a few drops of their magic wine on the vines. This fairy wine is said to have extraordinary properties and to be particularly prized.

In Les Riceys in Champagne, they tell the story of how when the palace of Versailles was being built, King Louis XIV saw some workmen drinking wine from their local town and they were from Les Riceys, and he asked to try some – and loved it. Les Riceys pink wine became known as the pink wine of Kings! And he also loved red wine from Champagne especially from the aptly named village of Bouzy!

Also from Champagne comes the legend of Dom Perignon, the wine making monk who allegedly invented Champagne by mistake and called out “come quickly brothers, I am tasting the stars” – great story. Not true, it was the English who likely invented Champagne!

In a part of Alsace they say dragons blood filled a lake and that the vines grown there now make the wine taste of fire and vitality.

It’s said in France that wine always tastes better when shared with friends, but a tall story doesn’t do any harm either.

Terroir – what’s that all about?

In France they refer to terroir a lot when talking about wine, and food too actually, but especially wine. It’s a word you can’t really translate into English though it sounds a bit like territory. But it really means the environmental conditions where something is grown. The weather, how much sun reaches a vineyard, whether it’s on a hill, the soil condition and all sort of things affect the terroir which in turn gives wine its unique flavour and aroma.

One of the best places to really understand this is Burgundy, home to les climats. The name basically refers to a group of vineyards which are UNESCO recognised as a cultural landscape. It doesn’t mean climate though it sounds like it should, but they’re specific plots of vines with a precisely defined border, each plot produces wine with a unique taste and each wine bears the name of the plot – every plot has a unique name too. And there are more than 1,200 Climats across the entire listed area which is around 60km long, so some of these plots are really small.

The “Climats” are the result of a combination of 2000 year old cultural heritage and savoire-faire, know-how of the growers. The plots were often worked by monks, and the area features stone walls which gives the vineyards the name clos, like Clos Bèze, which is a plot known to have been worked by monks 1500 years ago, and there are often little stone shelters in the vineyards.

And the wines taste so different according to which region you’re in even if the grapes are the same. The wines of Haute-Savoie are very different from Bordeaux. The wines of Alsace are different from the Loire Valley. And did you know that there is even a vineyard in the heart of Paris? Paris as we know it actually used to be covered in vineyards in the middle ages and you can still see and visit a vineyard in Paris – it’s in Montmatre, rather a secret place. And if you’re in Paris in October – they have a vendange, the harvest of the grapes with a big celebration.

There are more than 750 hectares of vineyards in France – more than 1 million rugby pitches worth. Wines are produced in every region of France – even Hauts-de-France, the northernmost tip of the country which is traditional beer country.

You’re right, even Champagne is produced in Hauts-de-France which most people are completely unaware of.

Drinking etiquette in France

A drink at the bar in France is cheaper than a drink at the table. And it’s customary to wait until everyone has arrived before you take your first sip whether that’s one person – or 50! When drinking with French friends, it’s considered polite to clink glasses. And there are a few rules when doing so – first you must keep eye contact with everyone as you clink your glasses, and second you should wait for everyone to finish clinking and staring into each other’s eyes before you drink. It doesn’t matter if it’s alcohol or a non-alcoholic drink.

And if you’re wondering why the French require you to look into their eyes as you toast each other – it’s said that failure to do so will result in seven years of bad luck – or bad sex! It’s said this custom goes back to the middle ages when you had a drink with someone and you didn’t know if they were friends or enemies and might poison your drink so you watched them intently to make sure they didn’t slip something horrible into your drink!

And finally when you have a drink in France with a friend or family It’s common to say “À ta santé” or just “santé”, which means to your good health and you answer by saying “à la tienne” – to yours. And if you’re wanting to be a bit more formal, like with your boss, you say “à votre santé” – to your good health, answered by “à la vôtre” – to yours! Or keep it simple “tchin-tchin” which is like cheers!.

Janine Marsh is the author of several internationally best-selling books about France. Her latest book How to be French – a celebration of the French lifestyle and art de vivre, is out now – a look at the French way of life. Find all books on her website janinemarsh.com