Grape variety use by french winemakers

France is producing several hundreds or thousands of wine according to the method used to count( it châteaux, clos, marques, etc.).

There are many varieties ( types of vines and grapes) .Each variety gives wines of character variable , depending on the soil, the nature of the ground, the position relative to the sun, the wine making, etc.

Weather permitting to get different wines , although of the same origin , by year , we talk about vintage.

In France, 3 Grapes varieties ( on 6) are principally used:

MERLOT

Merlot is a red wine grape that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. Merlot-based wines usually have medium body with hints of berry, plum, and currant. Its softness and "fleshiness", combined with its earlier ripening, makes Merlot a popular grape for blending with the sterner, later-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon, which tends to be higher in tannin.

Merlot is one of the primary grapes in Bordeaux wine where it is the most widely planted grape. Merlot is also one of the most popular red wine varietals in many markets.

As a varietal wine, Merlot can make soft, velvety wines with plum flavors. While Merlot wines tend to mature faster than Cabernet Sauvignon, some examples can continue to develop in the bottle for decades.

Beyond France it is also grown in Italy (where it is the country's 5th most planted grape), California, Romania, Australia, Chile, New Zealand, South Africa...

CABERNET SAUVIGNON

Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Canada's Okanagan Valley to Lebanon's Beqaa Valley. Cabernet Sauvignon became internationally recognized through its prominence in Bordeaux wines where it is often blended with Merlot and Cabernet.

From France, the grape spread across Europe and to the New World where it found new homes in places like California's Napa Valley, Australia's Coonawarra region and Chile's Maipo Valley. For most of the 20th century, it was the world's most widely planted premium red wine grape until it was surpassed by Merlot in the 1990s..

PINOT NOIR

Pinot noir is a red wine grape variety of the species Vitis vinifera..

Pinot noir grapes are grown around the world, mostly in the cooler regions, but the grape is chiefly associated with the Burgundy region of France. It is widely considered to produce some of the finest wines in the world, but is a difficult variety to cultivate and transform into wine.