Ep. 939 Map 1 France | Jumbo Shrimp Maps

Welcome to the Italian wine podcast. This episode is brought to you by Vinitally International Academy, announcing the twenty fourth of our Italian wine Ambassador courses to be held in London, Austria, and Hong Kong, from the twenty seventh to the twenty ninth of July. Are you up for the challenge of this demanding course? Do you want to be the next Italian wine Ambassador? Learn more and apply now at viniti international dot com. Welcome to jumbo shrimp wine study maps. We have specially created this free content for all our listeners who are studying for wine exams. This has been a journey of development since Stevie Kim discovered Rosie Baker's hand drawn maps on Instagram through two years of work by our in house editorial and graphics team, and now the maps are available to purchase in beta form while they undergo the final briefing and editing by our expert advisory board. It's a three layered project because we know everyone learns differently. We now offer the complete box set of thirty nine maps. This series of podcasts with the maps narrated by our crack team of wine educators. And finally, the study guide book, which will be published later this year. Our map project is in no way a substitute for the material set out by other educational or organizations, but we hope all the wine students out there will find our map project a new, exciting, and useful tool for learning. For more information and to buy the maps, please visit our website at mama jumbo shrimp dot com. Welcome to the jumbo shrimp wine study maps podcast. In this episode, we'll be looking at France an overview of what to expect when you start studying the key wine regions of France. First off, let's have a look at labeling in France. So France uses the geographic indications of the EU, so the PGI PDA system But of course, like many European countries, it also uses its own labeling terms within the PGI PPO system, and these are what you are more likely to see on the labels. For example, at the PGI level, you will see IGP, so the Indecastion Geographic protege. But you might also see van der Pei. This is particularly common in the southern area of France. Now once we take a step up into these PDio areas. So with much stricter controls on things like grape variety, yield, winemaking, now we begin to see the Appalachian Controlet. So the AC or AOC on the labels. France being a really large country, in addition to the Appalachian Controlet on the labels, you will often find villages named or cruise or the terms premier crew or grand crew. We'll dive into those in a little bit more detail when we get to the individual areas because each of them has a slightly different way of labeling their wines and therefore a slightly different way that these appear. France is a country with lots of different climatic influences Therefore, we have a full range of climate types here. So for recap, closer to the coast where we have this Atlantic Ocean influence. So for example, in the Nantes, in the Loire Valley, in Bordeaux, we have a maritime climate. So these are climates characterized by cool to moderate temperatures and low annual difference between the average summer winter temperatures. So low continentality. Rainfall also tends to be spread evenly across the year This means that you might get rainfall during harvest, for example, which is something you need to consider when you're thinking about your natural and human factors. It's also something you need to consider when connecting the climate with the great varieties you might find there and issues with ripening. Are you enjoying this podcast? Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel, mama jumbo shrimp for fascinating videos covering Stev Kim and her travels across Italy and beyond. Meeting winemakers, eating local food, and taking in the scenery. Now, back to the show. As we get into more central France, thinking about areas such as Alsas or burgundy into the doe doeing, these are areas that are continental. So they have high continentality. This is a large difference between the coldest and the warmest months. They also have short summers, and a large temperature, this really quick temperature drop in the autumn. These are areas that are at great risk of things like spring frost. Again, something you need to be connecting with the great varieties that are grown here, and the impact that this might have on flowering. Therefore, it's best suited to great varieties that bud late and ripen early. Something we'll be diving into in a little bit more detail when we talk about Bergandy. As we get closer to the Mediterranean, we have, you might have guessed it, Mediterranean climates. These are also like maritime climates, areas with a low difference between the average temperatures in the growing season, so in the summer and then in the winter. However, the summers tend to be warmer than those in maritime climates, and they have extra warmth and extra sunlight in general. So you might see higher alcohol levels, maybe a little bit lower acidity. And again, something to consider when thinking about what grape varieties might ripen in these areas. We're going to dive into the grape varieties that are specific to each region as we cover the maps for those regions. However, it is worth noting at this point that France is famous for the so called international varieties. So these are varieties that are grown around the world in various styles. For example, we're thinking about chardonnay, merlot, cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir, even sauvignon blanc now. And one of the reasons that these have been carried around the world is because of the success of the premium wines in France and the styles that have been copied around the world. However, it's not just these international varieties that are grown in France. France has lots of other different varieties that are not to be dismissed, and that are very specifically connected to places. For example, when we think about bordeaux, we're also gonna be talking about semillon and Muscadel. When we get to burgundy, it's not just chardonnay and pinot noir that are grown here, but also Game and Aligote. Noir is the home of things like Shannon Blanc of Cabernet franc, of Melander Bugoin. Into bordeaux, not just Merlo, Cabernet sauvignon, you shouldn't forget that there is also cabernet franc and Pativa Do down here adding specific characters to the blend. And of course, as we get into the Ron, we'll be thinking about things like Sira, grenache, also Vionier. Into the southwest, we have Cotte, which is the French term for Malbec and Tannat. And then right down in this southern area of France, along the Mediterranean, we have the addition of things like Picpool and Muvedge. Join me in the next episode as we start taking a closer look at some of the specific regions and the things that you need to be considering when studying them. Thanks for listening to this episode of Italian wine podcast, brought to you by Vineetli Academy. Home of the gold standard of Italian wine education. Do you want to be the next ambassador? Apply online at benito international dot com for courses in London, Austria, and Hong Kong, the twenty seventh to the twenty ninth of July. Remember to subscribe and like Italian wine podcast and catch us on Soundflower, Spotify, and wherever you get your pods. You can also find our entire back catalog of episodes at Italian wine podcast dot com. Hi, guys. I'm Joy Livingston, and I am the producer of the Italian wine podcast. Thank you for listening. We are the only wine podcast that has been doing a daily show since the pandemic began. This is a labor of love and we are committed to bring you free content every day. Of course, this takes time and effort not to mention the cost of equipment, production, and editing. We would be grateful for your donations, suggestions, requests, and ideas. For more information on how to get in touch, go to italian wine podcast dot com.