French Wine Week is being launched in the UK from 9th - 15th October 2006, which is essentially a project to increase consumer awareness of the wealth of quality, interesting French wines available to us.
In the UK we are blessed with the widest range of wines almost anywhere in the world, and even in France you will seldom find quite such a range of French wines in any hypermarket as can be discovered in the UK. But in the UK these wines are up against heavily-marketed, consumer-friendly wines from the New World, with names which are easy to pronounce and remember AND labels which are helpful and informative.
But France can and does produce really good, accessible wines which are really enjoyable, interesting and good value for money - but I know people who insist on regarding French wines as over-priced, dull and difficult.
The Languedoc and the Loire in particular are producing some great little wines, often single varietals, sometimes helped by antipodean experience (the flying winemaker) - where tradition and innovation come together to produce exciting wines. For real evidence see Andrew Jefford's book The New France: A Complete Guide to Contemporary French Wine (Mitchell Beazley Wine Guides S.)
The best recommendation is to take advantage of the choice available and try something different and French - the £4.00 - £7.00 price range is full of great offerings from places such as Majestic and Oddbins
, It is also worth seeking out small independent wine merchants who will take a few more risks in seeking out something really interesting.
For more about the French Wines Week see www.frenchwinesweek.com
