currently 144,604 Wines and 22,891 Producers, including 2,393 classified producers.
The French wine-growing region of Champagne gave the most famous sparkling wine in the world the legally protected name Champagne. It is not identical with the administrative region Champagne-Ardenne or the historical landscape Champagne. The heart of the area is Reims, where almost all French rulers were crowned in Notre-Dame Cathedral, but the towns of Epernay and Chalons-sur-Marne are also very important. Champagne is the northernmost wine-growing region of France in the Paris Basin, about 140 kilometres east of Paris. The "Région délimitée de la Champagne viticole" was first defined in 1908, the boundaries then changed in 1911 and finally finalised in...
France is a relatively young wine-growing country compared to Greece and Italy. The first vines were brought to France in the 6th century BC by the Greeks, who founded Massalia (Latin Massillia = Marseille) in the southwest on the Mediterranean coast. At this time, the land that was only later called Gaul by the Romans was inhabited by the Celts. A lively trade developed and the Greeks covered the demand. When the Greeks migrated to the Po Valley in the 5th century, they got to know Italian wine and began to import it. The later French had been consuming wine for a long time before they began to cultivate it themselves on a large scale. The...
The white grape variety originates from France. There are around 120 synonyms, which indicate the vine's great age and worldwide distribution. The most important ones, grouped alphabetically by country, are Clevner, Clävner (Alsace); Arboisier, Arnaison Blanc, Arnoison, Aubain, Aubaine, Auvergnat Blanc, Auvernat Blanc, Auxerrois, Auxois, Beaunois, Blanc de Champagne, Chardonnet, Chaudenay, Chaudenet, Chaudent, Epinette, Epinette Blanc, Epinette de Champagne, Gamay Blanc, Gentil Blanc, Luisant, Melon à Queue Rouge, Melon Blanc, Melon d'Arbois, Melon d'Arlay, Morillon, Morillon Blanc, Noirien Blanc, Pineau Blanc, Pineau Blanc Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc Chardonnay,...