Subscribe to our newsletter
Stay informed about all the latest news. Receive a preview..
Where to find the best white wine?
The South of France has many great white wines
France, a wine-growing country par excellence, produces an incredible quantity of good white wines , whether they come from traditional, organic or biodynamic cultivation. It is therefore not surprising to see France producing the best white wines. Like any white wine, the best bottles offer a very nice freshness, most often with a hint of invigorating acidity. Its aromas and flavors bring back its origins, its terroir and the flora that composes it.
The best white wines are those that have successfully combined the cultivation of a quality grape variety with tailor-made winemaking to convey the full potential of the grape. This is the case, for example, of certain white wines such as Tariquet Premières Grives, AOC Condrieu des Côtes-du-Rhône or Savoie Chignin Bergeron wine. Each region has its own terroir and characteristics, which is what makes the French territory so extraordinary and allows it to produce some of the best white wines in the world.
To understand this heterogeneity of French white wines , it is enough to simply go from a wine from the southwest like a Côtes-de-Gascogne to an Alsace wine like a Gewurztraminer. It is also obvious that organic white wines , but also biodynamic white wines , deliver aromas that are different from traditional white wines, being purer, better structured, less focused on alcohol and more oriented towards fruit. The passage through barrel aging brings a woody touch, which can be transformed into delicious grilled, toasted or brioche flavors.
A good example of a best white wine and a great French white wine would surely be a bottle of Cigalus from the Gérard Bertrand estates, a premium white wine from the south of France, with silky, ample flavors and intense aromas.
Discover the collection of the best white wines from the Gérard Bertrand estates
White wine and vintage
From one year to the next, climatic conditions change, which logically influences the plant world, and in particular, the vineyards. This is how the importance of vintages appears, depending in particular on the weather during the year, from spring to the end of summer, or even the beginning of autumn for late harvest wines (in particular for Alsace wines as well as sweet and liqueur white wines).
It is easy to understand that a mild spring accompanied by a hot and dry summer (but not too dry) allows to produce a better quality grape than a year with a cold spring receiving late frosts and a summer with very little sunshine. Each wine region having its climate and each grape variety its ideal climatic conditions, the good years for the north-east of France will not necessarily be the same as for the south-west region.
An atypical wine estate like Château La Sauvageonne , for example, produces an excellent AOP Languedoc white wine labeled Organic (AB) and Biodynamic (Demeter), with a strong character, offering generosity, breadth and freshness. If we had to compare the years, the 2018 vintage is notably an excellent year for the Rhône Valley, Burgundy and Languedoc-Roussillon, the year 2016 for Bordeaux wines and wines from the Loire Valley. The 2019 vintage was an excellent year for almost all the wine regions of France.
The main white wine grape varieties
The most well-known grape varieties for making white wine include Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Grenache Blanc, Riesling and Gewurztraminer, and they make up the vast majority of French white wine production. Other lesser-known and often neglected grape varieties also deserve to be highlighted, such as Viognier (wine from the south of France), Savagnin (used in particular for the production of Jura yellow wine), Aligoté (a cousin of Chardonnay) and Gros Manseng (a Pyrenees grape variety used to produce Jurançon).
A selection of our best white wines
Our wine presentation pages:
The different colors of wine: red wine , white wine , rosé wine , orange wine
Our selection of the best Gérard Bertrand wines:
Discover the Gérard Bertrand family business :
Its wine estates in the Occitanie region ,
His expertise in the design of organic wine and biodynamic wine ,
Its ecological values .
