French wine — you will be hard-pressed to find a more versatile drink with so many use cases. If you want to have a nice dinner, you can use the right wine to bring out your food’s flavors. If there is a special occasion such as a birthday or an anniversary, an excellent wine would be a perfect way to drink without going too heavy with the alcohol. If you want to sit down with a few of your friends and want something to sip on as you are catching up with them, a nice glass of wine would do the trick.
However, some people are pretty hesitant about wine because they are misguided by the idea that for a wine to be genuinely high-quality and delicious, it has to be an expensive bottle of wine. Of course, that is not always the case. Quality is something that supersedes the price, and more advanced knowledge of what makes a bottle of wine good can save you a lot of money in the long run. Here is a breakdown of the things you need to pay attention to so you can get the perfect bottle of an affordable French wine without breaking the bank.
Price? Think nothing of it
You need to remember that something more affordable is not directly correlated with the product’s quality — this is especially true for wine. There are plenty of reasons why a good, high-quality wine can be priced lower.
You have to remember that wines come from grapes, and sometimes these are not in season. Even though the quality of the wine is the same, the demand whenever these off-seasons arise could be lower and cause the price of the wine to drop. This is something to celebrate because it means you will find high-quality bottles at more affordable prices.
Grapes are the key
Another way to tell that a wine is high-quality without smelling or tasting it first is if you can get it from a place that has a good reputation for having excellent grapes. After all, no matter what process is used to make and bottle the wine, the most critical aspect is still the raw material — the fruit from which it is extracted.
If you travel to Napa Valley or Paris, you can be sure that the bottle of wine you are buying is likely to be very good no matter what price it is.
A matter of personal preference
Snobbery aside, the essential thing that you need to keep in mind when appraising the quality of something, including a bottle of wine, is how well it fits your personal preferences. Some people would prefer an earthier wine that is lighter on the alcohol. Others would like stronger and more acidic wines.
You can therefore tell if the wine fits your idea of quality well by looking at the viscosity, smelling the aromas, and tasting it, taking notice of the initial taste as well as the finish.
So there you are, enjoying a delicious bottle of French wine does not have to break the bank. Just look for suitable bargains when the wines are not in season, buy from an area renowned for grapes, and learn how to look for a wine that fits your preferences, and you will be able to find the perfect bottle sooner rather than later.
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