French Red Wine

French red wines run the gamut from sweet red wine and sparkling red wine to dry red wine and even fortified red wine, the reds France produces run the gamut. Vin de paille—a lesser known type of wine made from grapes that have been dried intentionally to concentrate flavor and sweetness—can even include red varieties. However, those will only ever be pale mahogany colored.

There are over 200 documented grape varieties grown in France, but only 40 or so are known widely outside of the country. Some of the most popular French red grapes to know are Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Gamay, Grenache, Mourvèdre and Syrah.

France’s red grapes are used to produce myriad styles, and some have become synonymous with the region in which they are produced or the technique used to produce them. Some of the most popular French red wines to know are red Burgundy (made from Pinot Noir), red Bordeaux (usually made from Merlot, Cab Sauvignon, Cab Franc, Petit Verdot, Malbec and Carmenère), Chinon (made from Cab Franc), Beaujolais (made from Gamay), and Côtes du Rhône and Châteauneuf-du-Pape (both made primarily from Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre).

What makes a good French red wine will be a matter of your own personal preference, and finding the best French red for you can be difficult. One way to know if you’ll enjoy a wine is to look at its label. That’s where you’ll see important info like the producer’s name and find clues about the wine’s regionality, grapes, aging and wine style.

Unfortunately however, given the amount and range of red French wine, and the myriad regulations the country has to govern the process, this approach also requires you to know a bit about these categories. So another way to find a good French red wine is to purchase it from a source you trust, like laithwaites.com.