The Different Types of French and German Wines
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It's hard to imagine a beverage more important to a festive meal than wine. The excerpt below is from a book on catering that has some great information on the basics of wine (whether you are a caterer or not). This section covers the three main types of French wines along with some information on German wines.
Title: How to Run a Catering Business From Home Author: Christopher Egerton-Thomas Excerpt: FrenchThere are three broad groups of French wine. They come from the areas known as Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Côtes du Rhone. Burgundy is a large region of northern France, with Rheims, Epernay, Beaune, and Beaujolais some of the towns that give their names to famous wines. Bordeaux is both a region and a city.
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Côte du Rhone means the bank of the River Rhone, which flows into the Mediterranean in a delta northwest of Marseilles and down whose broad valley blows the Mistral, a wind that causes bad weather as far away as the coast of Spain.
Famous red Burgundies, as wines from the region are generically called, include Beaune, Beaujolais, Pommard, and many others. You can't just call any old wine by these names - they are controlled, and the French call these names appellations controllee. They must originate from specified areas, although different houses and shippers bottle under different labels.
White burgundies include Chablis and Pouilly-Fuissé. Chablis is now used loosely as a generic, nonspecific term for white wine, but strictly speaking only wine from that region should be so called. The best white Burgundies are dry. Poor imitations tend not to be.
Bordeaux reds, often called clarets, include such wines as St. Emilion, Medoc, and so on. These, too, are controlled names. Claret is dominated by famous chateaux, or houses, such as Lafite Rothschilde, Chateau Haut Brion, and others. Amusingly, "Haut Brion" is a corruption of the Anglo-Irish name "O'Brien," dating from the days when Bordeaux, like Burgundy, was an English possession by way of royal marriage. Bordeaux wines include Graves, which is dry, and Sauternes, which is sweet. Again, different chateaux create their own vintages within these groups.
Although shapes have changed and become gimmicky in recent years, most Burgundy wines come in bottles with necks longer and narrower than those of Bordeaux bottles. Next time you're browsing in the wine store, you may notice this difference.
Famous red Burgundies, as wines from the region are generically called, include Beaune, Beaujolais, Pommard, and many others. You can't just call any old wine by these names - they are controlled, and the French call these names appellations controllee. They must originate from specified areas, although different houses and shippers bottle under different labels.
White burgundies include Chablis and Pouilly-Fuissé. Chablis is now used loosely as a generic, nonspecific term for white wine, but strictly speaking only wine from that region should be so called. The best white Burgundies are dry. Poor imitations tend not to be.
Bordeaux reds, often called clarets, include such wines as St. Emilion, Medoc, and so on. These, too, are controlled names. Claret is dominated by famous chateaux, or houses, such as Lafite Rothschilde, Chateau Haut Brion, and others. Amusingly, "Haut Brion" is a corruption of the Anglo-Irish name "O'Brien," dating from the days when Bordeaux, like Burgundy, was an English possession by way of royal marriage. Bordeaux wines include Graves, which is dry, and Sauternes, which is sweet. Again, different chateaux create their own vintages within these groups.
Although shapes have changed and become gimmicky in recent years, most Burgundy wines come in bottles with necks longer and narrower than those of Bordeaux bottles. Next time you're browsing in the wine store, you may notice this difference.
German
Germany has a huge wine industry, mainly white. It is no secret that, shortly after World War II, the industry decided to concentrate on cheap, mass-consumption wines, but their best offerings are out of this world - like their prices. German wines have two main groups - those from the Rhine Valley, which are called Rhine wines and those from the Moselle Valley, called Moselles. Both come in the traditionally shaped tall and tapered bottle. Nevertheless, they can easily be distinguished because Rhine bottles are brown while Moselle bottles are green. There's no need to be confused - just remember that the word green like the word Moselle has two e's.
The most famous Rhine wine is the cheap-and-cheerful Liebfraumilch. Another, produced perforce in somewhat lesser quantities, is Schloss Johannisberg - a sublime and expensive wine that falls into the area designated by the German government as Qualitatswein mit pradikat - the highest imaginable quality.
- from "How to Run a Catering Business From Home," by Christopher Egerton-Thomas
The most famous Rhine wine is the cheap-and-cheerful Liebfraumilch. Another, produced perforce in somewhat lesser quantities, is Schloss Johannisberg - a sublime and expensive wine that falls into the area designated by the German government as Qualitatswein mit pradikat - the highest imaginable quality.
- from "How to Run a Catering Business From Home," by Christopher Egerton-Thomas