I love France.

Always have.

I love its roads, its history, its smells, its gentle summer breezes, its languid rivers, the smell of burning two-stroke from a passing moped on a Sunday morning, its very ‘Frenchness’ – determined to survive in an increasingly globalised world. You can see this in its cinema and its literature, but the best examples can be found in food and wine.

Take the recent campaign by boulangers to get the Baguette a UNESCO heritage listing, or the fierce battle over the years to protect its cheese and champagne from generic obscurity. And what did France choose as an experiment in space cargo on the Space Station? Why, Chateau Petrus of course. I saw an article in the paper today about food that they are sending to the space station.

‘An army marches on its stomach’ said Napoleon. I would argue that this is true of the French nation, and perhaps that’s why I love it so.

Another French military general, De Gaulle, once quipped ‘how can you govern a country that has 246 different cheeses?’

On the flip side, Churchill was of the opinion that France would survive the occupation during WW2 because of its cheese: ‘Any country with 300 kinds of cheese cannot die’.

I guess Churchill didn’t have to run the place. They were equally wrong in one respect – France has many more cheeses, over one thousand according to this source.

And even more wine. Wine Folly states that there are over 200 indigenous wine varieties, over 300 Appellations and approximately 2,900 different French wines. No doubt a perfect cheese for each.

Winemaking in France has evolved over centuries (apparently the invading Romans brought the first vines) so that grape variety is in harmony with climate and soil and ‘gout de terroir’ is paramount (pronounced goo rather than gout). Unlike here, wines aren’t based primarily on the grape variety, nor the wood treatment, yeast or fermentation process.

That is changing as the demand for recognisable grape varieties increases with the old world now following the new. I find it hard to find regional French wines in Australia – beyond the more famous regions, but here’s one that’s well worth trying.

Picpoul de Pinet, Domaine de la Serre, $14 at Vintage Cellars

The name rang a bell, so I decided to give it a go and I’ve now ordered a case. If you like a dryish white with a good, round welcoming taste, a hint of honeysuckle on the nose and a fresh farewell then give it a go.

My parents moved to France in 1990. They chose to live in the Charente, a lovely rural region of majestic rivers, medieval towns and an excellent goat cheese called Chabichou du Poitu, but no wine! There are vines, but they end up becoming a strange, fortified drink called Pineau de Charente. Tant pis!

2021 doesn’t look like being a vintage year for the French. Earlier this month unseasonably severe frosts destroyed buds on vines across the land causing almost two billion Euros worth of damage. The national crop is expected to be down by a third. In Chablis, where the temperature dropped to minus 7 C it’s possible that over 90% of the crop will be lost.

I guess that could be good for Australian wine makers.