Regional French Wine Guides and Producer List

	Alsace is unique within the French Wine Regions due to the German influences, which play an equal role in sculpting the area's language, traditions - and even its wines. It is also the only region of France that sells its wine according to the name of the grape variety. Wine growing is a top priority here, and the region produces fine aromatic white wines.
	Offering a deep ruby red, Beaujolais is more than just a wine; it's an agricultural region that produces as many as 2.3 billion bottles of red wine per year. This French wine is renowned for its fruity taste and robust structure and has been popular since the 19th century. Beaujolais wines are also rich in pigments of carotenoids which give the wines their characteristic dark purple hue.
	Situated in the beautiful South-West of France, the Bordeaux region is one of the largest wine-growing areas in France with a total area of over 125,000 hectares. With the Atlantic Ocean to the west of the region, the land’s coastal temperatures are mitigated by the Gulf Stream pulling warm tropical currents up its western shores. On average, the region produces a staggering 900,000 million bottles of wine a year.
	Burgundy with its many vineyards, villages and appellation systems, split among numerous land owners and wine growers, provides a complicated region to grasp. Great Burgundy wine can be red, made with Pinot Noir, and white which tend to be un-blended wines made from single grape varieties, mostly Chardonnay and occasionally Aligoté.
	As a region Champagne is divided into 5 areas of production; Aube, Côte des Blancs, Côte de Sézanne, Montagne de Reims, and Vallée de la Marne in which Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes are grown for the production of the regions signature wine. In comparison to the rest of the world's successful wine producing regions, Champagne lies the furthest from the equator at 49°N.
	Languedoc-Roussillon is not a wine appellation in itself despite the term being used by many wine professionals and wine aficionados. Since January 2016, both Languedoc-Roussillon and the Midi-Pyrénées regions have been grouped together for administrative reasons, becoming a part of the newest region, Occitanie, and include the larger IGP appellations of Pays d’Oc, Côtes Catalanes and the brand ‘Sud de France’.
	The Loire is France’s longest river — almost 400 km running from the Massif Central, situated in the centre of France, to the west towards the Atlantic. The Loire wine region mainly produces white wines; however, there are also fantastic reds and mouth-watering rosé made from Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, and Gamay grapes.
	The Provence wine region is a vast area in the south-eastern part of France. The area stretches from Arles to Nice, where the wines are influenced by the Mediterranean climate, and from the Luberon to Les Alpes Maritimes, which is situated towards and within the foothills of the Alps. This part of France is famous for the 'mistral' winds, which plays an integral part in growing the grapes for Provence wine production. There is a high demand for Provençal wines, for white, red and rosé styles, with some wine producers offering wine of a particularly high quality.
	The Rhône Valley is home to some of the oldest vineyards in the world with evidence of wine production dating back to the 4th Century BC Greek occupation. Thereafter, the Romans took occupation and their wine making thrived from the 1st Century AD. Archaeological finds, such as earthenware jars and geographical sculpting, have shown that Rhône wines are among some of the oldest wines in the world.
	First cultivated by the Romans, the 'South West' is one of France's largest wine producing regions, encompassing over 16,000 hectares of land to the west of (but not including) Bordeaux. The local rivers such as the Garonne and Dordogne previously played an important role in trade of the wines in moving them to markets, however passing through Bordeaux and the resulting trade laws caused them to become largely overshadowed. Nowadays, the region is now famous for its sweet, dry and sparkling whites, and its strong reds.