A Wine Tour de France: A Visit to Old World Wine Country Sat, Sep 24, 22 | wine Recently, our wine buyer Brian Price and private label wine and spirits buyer Amy McIntosh traveled to France to explore French wine country and select some exceptional new wines for our stores. During their travels, they visited with producers, suppliers, and industry leaders from around the globe. Here’s a taste of what they discovered… Bordeaux The Bordeaux region of France produces some of the most expensive wines in the world. Bordeaux reds are generally a blend made of two or more of the following varietals: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and Malbe. Bordeaux whites are typically Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon, and Muscadelle. While our team was in Bordeaux, they sampled wines at several Châteaux and also at smaller wine producers throughout the region. Champagne In the Champagne region, the team toured and compared small and large production vineyards around Reims. They tasted the subtle difference that oak can make on the delicate varietal pressings by comparing wines aged in a 10-year-old barrel, a 2-year-old barrel, and a new barrel. Loire The team continued their travels with tours and tastings in the Loire Valley, one of the world’s most well-known areas of wine production. They sampled wines from vineyards in Saumur and visited the incredible cave system Cave de Producteurs at Vouvray, where they sampled wines as old as the 1950s! Vin de France Brian and Amy concluded their French tour with the 2019 Vin de France medal competition. They were two of only 42 people from around the world selected to judge the competition. Each table of judges tasted more than 45 wines to determine the silver and gold medal winners for 2019! This visit to France was an incredible opportunity for us to taste and select enchanting new wines for our customers. We’ll soon have these new selections in our stores, so come on out and stock your wine cellar!
