wine in paris

I love red wine - but have never really had much French wine - usually Italian or more high-end California wines...so, this may be a %26quot;dumb%26quot; question, but is the red wine in Paris bistros/restaurants usually of the %26quot;dry%26quot; kind (I hope)....I am totally assuming that I%26#39;ll love it, but just wondering........thanks!

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I have found the house wines at most Parisian restaurants to be very good. We usually get a picthett of vine rouge. It is really cheap. For really dry, I buy Bordeaux wines at the Nicholas wine shops you see around Paris. Again, really inexpensive. You can also buy good cheap wines in the grocery stores. I%26#39;ve paid as little as $2.50 and it was still good. Scary I know.

In my opinion the most of the house wines we%26#39;ve had tasted like Burgundy wines.IMO. I%26#39;m no expert, but I do like red wines and prefer Cabernet when at home in California.

If you like Champaigne try some of the ones that are white wines Champaigne method. I thought they were really good for a fraction of the price you pay for %26quot;real%26quot; Champaigne. We do buy the real stuff sometimes because being in Paris is cause for celebration.

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That IS very cheap -- hope the prices are still that way! So, your experience is that the %26quot;house wine%26quot; is totally acceptable/good?

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House wine is very acceptable.

However, if you try some better wines, get a bottle.

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j,

It is very possible that the varietals you are now drinking are of French origin. Except for Zinfandel (a California grape), just about all of the red wine grapes popularly grown in the US and elsewhere are from France; Pinot Noir and Beaujolais (from Burgundy), Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot (from Bordeaux) and Shirah (from the Rhone Valley).

French wines are not sold by varietal (cepage). That is an late %26#39;50s invention from a California grower trying to improve sales by making wines seem more approachable. Underneath the fancy names and impressive buildings on the bottles of French wines is the nucleus of what you already appreciate.

If the opportunity to try some sweet reds presents itself (i.e. Banyuls or Rasteau) try them. Experimentation is the first step to wider appreciation.

I believe you will be pleasantly surprised by how familiar you are already with what France has to offer.

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j--

I post this comment regularly - drink the house wine, it will not be great but it will be good. No restaurant, brasserie, etc., could survive in Paris with a bad house wine. I%26#39;ve never had a red that wasn%26#39;t dry. I know nothing about the whites, I never drink them.

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Sarastro

Is one of the reasons wine from the US and Australia is sold by reference to the grape used that this avoids being in breach of some European laws about using names of areas of France that wine types traditionally came from. I believe that most of our wines have the producer%26#39;s name and then (eg) %26quot;cabernet sauvignon%26quot; for that reason.

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