Exploring the Flavors of Tastin’ France 2024: A Wine Tasting with Trends

I attended Tastin’ France 2024 in Amsterdam, an event by Business France. Thanks to Michèle Lainé for the invite. The event featured about thirty French wine producers from nine regions in France: Champagne, Loire, Beaujolais, Rhône, Provence, Languedoc, Roussillon, and Bordeaux. I tasted a variety of wines and noticed some trends. Think low alcohol, drinkable, not too complex, drink less but drink better quality.

Setup of the tasting and organization

The event was well-organized, giving participants the chance to taste wines from new or expanding winemakers in the Netherlands. I received a detailed tasting booklet which helped me plan my visits to the winemakers that interested me the most. I noticed many winemakers were using or transitioning to organic or biodynamic practices. A few winemakers from Champagne Loire, Provence, Languedoc, and Bordeaux stood out.

The tasting reception was welcoming. It was in a well-arranged room with stands that matched the order in the tasting booklet, making it easy to navigate.

The trends that caught my attention

Winemakers are increasingly focusing on enhancing winemaking for both people and nature by employing organic and biodynamic methods in their vineyards and wineries. The transition to these practices is a long-term commitment that requires consistent, sustainable efforts for certification, posing challenges for small winemakers due to its time-consuming and costly nature.

The trend of drinking less but better

In France, the Netherlands, and other countries, more people are opting to drink less alcohol. When they do indulge, it’s usually for special occasions like fancy dinners or parties, and they prefer high-quality wine. Winemakers are responding by focusing on high-quality, fresh, and approachable wines that fit this trend. Organic and increasingly biodynamic wines are also in demand, reflecting a growing focus on health and the environment. This is a positive development that I strongly support. The new motto is: drink less, but better.

Highlights of the Wines I’ve Tasted

Here are some exceptional wines I’ve had the pleasure of tasting. It was a delightful experience filled with surprising, fresh styles and unique expressions of their respective grape varieties.

Champagne | Champagne Etienne Oudart

Established in Brugny in 1958, Domaine Étienne Oudart has a deep love for wines. Local winemakers Jacques and Maxime Oudart prioritize quality and sustainable viticulture, letting vines grow undisturbed for ideal grape balance. Their commitment earned them the “Sustainable Viticulture in Champagne” and HVE labels in 2018. The dosage for each wine is determined individually. A blind tasting is conducted with 6 participants and four bottles. Each bottle contains 0, 6, 8, and 10 grams of sugar, respectively. The bottle that is most favored determines the dosage. I genuinely appreciate their wines due to their subtle, round, and fresh characteristics. You can genuinely sense, smell, and taste the differences stemming from the terroir, plots, and a passion for winemaking. It was great learning so much from Jacques and Maxime Oudart, thanks again for taking the time for this!

• Brut Origine – This wine has a soft mousse and offers aromas and flavors of green apple, peach, and pear. There’s a slight hint of butter and brioche with a toasted finish, making it genuinely refined and friendly.
• Brut Référence – It maintains the same identity and character as the Brut Origine, but with a more serious tone. It has a more complex profile, featuring increased toastiness, spices, and herbs, yet it retains an intense fruity character.
• Chardonnay Vintage 2022 – The combination of 2022’s conditions and the sandy terroir of the southern hills lend this wine a rich, ripe character. It has crisp, acidity, and fruity flavors of red apple, pear, peach, nectarine, melon, lime zest, and lemon, with a hint of lemon curd. This champagne is made for enjoyment.
• Extra-Brut Vintage 2015 – Comprised of 25% Meunier, resulting in a rounder taste. It’s firmly structured yet still approachable. It maintains its distinct fruitiness and dry flavors, accompanied by minerality and depth. This is truly one of my favorites!
• Blanc de Noirs – Made with 50% Pinot Noir and 50% Meunier. This combination contributes structure, roundness, and an intense fruit flavor. Very impressive.
• Abrugny Brut Nature Sans Sulfites – This is a unique, new-wave Champagne crafted by the younger generation. The wine undergoes spontaneous fermentation with no sulfites, and the dosage is made with natural yeast sans sugar. This process lends the wine a wild, lively, smooth, yet slightly edgy character. It’s brimming with fruit and surprisingly maintains the same identity. It’s clear that it’s an experiment, and there’s some room for improvement to make it more stable and less funky.

Champagne | Champagne Patis-Paille

Patis Pluriel represents innovation and the rejuvenation driven by the new generation. Their philosophy is to respect all aspects of life, from the vineyard to the champagne production process. They consistently experiment to create champagnes that are perfectly adapted to their environment, treating the process much like a lab. I find this approach refreshing! They prioritize soil restoration in viticulture, a process that demands time and resources. During wine-making, they prefer small quantities and temporary blends, each tailored to the particular year. Their goal is to preserve the uniqueness of each cuvée and the essence of the terroir by vinifying without sulfites, brut, and unfiltered. This is truly a new wave in Champagne, deserving of further exploration, tasting, and scaling to become better and more widely recognized. I really hope that I can taste these Champagnes soon in the Netherlands; they are searching for an importer….

• Champagne Patis Pluriel Corps Simple – For me, it really highlights the 100% Meunier; it delicately and elegantly reveals the characteristics of the Marne Valley terroir. This is thanks to the precise work done on the Croix de Verneuil plot, chosen in 2022 for its berry aromas and perfect ripeness. The vinification is parcel-based, with no added sulfites, preservation through carbonic ice, and fermentation. This champagne is truly special and perfect for special occasions. It’s fruity, with a distinctive structure, while still maintaining typical Champagne attributes – good mousse, refinement, elegance, and enjoyment. It’s truly exceptional.
• Champagne Patis Pluriel Seves – This vintage employs the technique of blending and the impact of wood. Fermented in seven-year-old French oak barrels, the three key Champagne grape varieties, Meunier, Pinot noir, and Chardonnay, display outstanding balance with the woody notes. By not filtering, the wine’s integrity and structure are maintained from barrel to bottle. It had a very serious glow and shine, golden with the fine mouse that dances in your mouth, giving lots of wild, fruity, vanilla, spicy, and herbal vibes. All are very nice in balance. The aftertaste reminds you that you are dealing with a severe premium, well-made new-wave champagne.

Loire | Domaine des Brissettes

Established in 2022, the wine company produced its inaugural wine in 2023, aiming for 20,000 bottle sales in its first year. Currently, it is seeking an importer for its initial overseas launch at a tasting event. The 5-hectare Domaine is transitioning to organic farming, yielding fresh and aromatic wines characteristic of the Loire region. Winemaker Maxime Cadoux is a humble man who strives to craft excellent, pure wines. His wines are truly outstanding and deserve wider recognition. Maxime is still in search of an importer.

• Le Berceau blanc 2023 – is a superb wine from AOC Cheverny Blanc, made with 84% Sauvignon and 16% Chardonnay. The vines, which are 25 years old, grow in sandy soil over limestone and are exposed from North to South. The wine is aged on fine lees for five months. It showcases a clean, light golden yellow color and a nose filled with scents of lime, lemon, grapefruit, peach, and apple. The palate is full-bodied with a nice, crisp acidity that is perfectly balanced. This wine is pure and clean, making it very pleasant and energetic.
• Le Berceau Rouge 2023 – is the red variety from AOC Cheverny. It’s made with 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Gamay. The vines are 30 years old, rooted in sand on clay soil with North-South exposure. It ages on fine lees for eight months. The wine has an attractive ruby-red color and a full nose of red and black fruits. The palate is supple and round, featuring cherry, strawberries, blackberries, spices, smooth tannins, and fine acidity. All these elements balance nicely, resulting in a pure, clean, pleasant, and energetic wine. I’m eager to enjoy more of this wine and anticipate the journey Maxime will take us on in the coming years. Remember to follow and support Maxime on his journey!

Languedoc | Les Domaines Auriol

Domaines Auriol is a family business in southeast France managed by Claude Vialade. It’s a global entity centered on producing, trading, and exporting organic wines. The company values quality, ecology, traceability, development, and innovation. As France’s largest organic wine producer, it boasts organic, vegan, and Demeter certifications. With an extensive range of over 90 references and more than fifteen brands, they specialize in areas such as water-efficient vineyards and continuously innovate for their winemakers and customers.

I had the privilege of conversing with Claude Vialade herself, learning about her work firsthand. She expressed a desire to focus more on low-alcohol wines without compromising taste and without adding sugar. I sampled a low-alcohol bubble, 7,5%, made with Chardonnay, which was fantastic, as well as near-to-zero 0,5% Sauvignon Blanc. Both were delightful and are expected to be popular this summer. All their wines have a Mediterranean profile, featuring soft, silky notes of rosemary, thyme, sage, and laurel, presented in a distinctively elegant manner. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversations and am grateful to Claude for her time.

• Chardonnay 2023 sparkling 7.5% – IGP Pays d’Oc – This organic sparkling Chardonnay is truly sparkling and fabulous. With a refreshing fine mousse and just 7.5% alcohol content, it offers a pure taste of apple, pear, peach, and herbs. Its Mediterranean profile and medium-plus acidity make it really lovely.
• Solevi 2023- Wow, a 0.5% Sauvignon Blanc organic wine that’s both pure and clean. It truly embodies the Sauvignon Blanc lighter style but with a good body and identity. It also features a Mediterranean profile. The acidity is noticeable but not too high. This is a popular choice this summer!
• Belles du Sud de Cicéron 2023 – IGP Pays d’Oc – This is a serious rosé, made with Cinsault and Grenache Gris. It has excellent depth in the nose and palate, making it severe yet drinkable. The flavor profile includes delightful strawberries and raspberries with a hint of spices like mint and clove. It also has a medium (+) acidity and noticeable tannins. And the bottle looks fantastic!
• Coup de Gueule 2023 – IGP Pays d’Oc – Enjoyable fresh organic Sauvignon and Grenache Blanc, a gentle white wine that’s easy to drink. It’s not overly complex but is presented in a serious manner. Expect flavors of apple, lemon, peach, and nectarine, complemented by refreshing acidity.
• Albariño 2023 – IGP Aude – Wait, what? Albariño from Languedoc? That’s new to me, but Claude says it makes sense because they are close to Spain. This organic Albariño is beautifully typical, exuding Spanish and Mediterranean vibes. It’s pleasant to drink on its own, but I can also imagine it pairing well with food. I’m thinking of a nice salad with tomatoes, cucumber, and olives. The palate of the wine is rich with peach, lemon, lime, beeswax, and honey.
• Marselan 2019 – IGP Pays d’Oc – This is a truly elegant, smooth red wine bursting with pleasant red fruits like cherries and raspberries. It’s subtly spiced with clove, cinnamon, and black pepper. The wine has medium (+) tannins and acidity, and it finishes smoothly. Absolutely love it!

Bordeaux | Signature Selections

Signature Selections, a Bordeaux-based wine specialist, has been dealing in Grands Crus Classés and Confidential Terroirs since 1986. Founded by Jeffrey Davies, an American former wine critic, the company is now owned by Karim Nasser, a 20-year wine industry veteran, and Herwig Callewier, who left construction for the wine business in 2019. Davies continues to serve as an advisor. I tasted some of the most intriguing white Bordeaux wines. These wines genuinely represent Bordeaux’s future!

• Clos de la Molénie Blanc 2023 – AOC Bordeaux – This is a delightful biodynamic white wine made from Sauvignon Blanc. It has all the typical characteristics of Sauvignon Blanc but with a salty twist due to its aging in amphoras and sandstone eggs. The structure is derived from the wood aging process. The wine is incredibly refreshing with flavors of apple and peach, fennel, rosemary, and white pepper with a filming salty feeling, enriched by various herbs and spices, and has a long finish. It’s really lovely! The wine is produced through a cool-temperature fermentation process using only indigenous yeasts. Aging is conducted in four equal proportions: 25% in Terra Cotta amphorae, 25% in sandstone eggs, 25% in 500-liter acacia barrels, and 25% in 225-liter oak barrels used for multiple wines. The aging regimen lasts four months, during which the lees are regularly stirred.
• Château Les Charmes Godard Blanc 2021 – Bordeaux – AOC Francs-Côtes de Bordeaux – This wine is truly exciting, with intense aromas and palate featuring fresh apple, rosemary, wild peach, and lemon zest. The soil mainly consists of limestone-clay over marl, with some loamy patches. The vineyard, which has vines that are 33 years old, is made up of 65% Sémillon, 20% Sauvignon Blanc, and 15% Sauvignon Gris. Manual tasks such as de-budding, leaf-thinning, and green harvesting are performed. The hand-harvested grapes are fermented in 500L barrels (15% new) for seven months on the lees, using only the highest quality juices.
• Clos Junet 2018 – Bordeaux – AOC Saint-Emilion Grand Cru – This wine, composed of 50% Merlot and 50% Cabernet Franc, is soft, smooth, and very pleasing to drink. It’s rich with red and black fruits like strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and black currant. Hints of cloves, cinnamon, black pepper, and red cherries add to its complexity. The wine features smooth medium tannins and medium (+) acidity, all contained in a full-bodied profile with a long aftertaste. It’s very elegant and enjoyable. The grapes come from ancient sand beds with veins of red clay in the sub-soil. The vineyard, with an average vine age of 32 years, is managed sustainably and harvested manually with sorting. The vines are even horse-drawn. After the harvest, the wine undergoes malolactic fermentation in barrels. It is then aged in a mix of 50% new and 50% second-fill barrels from various coopers for about 15 months.

These wines will soon available at: https://bestofwines.com/wine/