Great Wines of France: Unique Wine Tasting Map

Taste Your Way Around France

Ahh, France. No other country produces more fine wine, and none has quite the same romantic allure. Use this unique tasting map as a tool to experience the diversity of flavors produced here, tasting your way from Champagne, down the Rhône to Provence and everywhere in between — 30 appellations in all.

Each area contains a space that will let you log a wine from that particular appellation, with a place to note its name/varietal, the winery that produced it, vintage, and the occasion you sampled the wine, all based on the popular 33 Bottles of Wine tasting journal.

A unique device called a flavor wheel helps you visually record the wine’s flavor. For low values, fill in dots near the wheel’s center. A Sauvignon Blanc from Pouilly-Fumé is used in the example shown below.

Super-Sized

The only way to include so many areas was to make this poster big. It's 24 inches wide (61 cm) and 24 inches tall. There's a spot to review the top appellations from each of the four major areas:

• The Loire Valley
• The Rhône Valley
• Bordeaux
• Burgundy

Other notable regions, including Champagne, Alsace, Jura and Savoie are also included.

American-made French (brand) Paper

The poster is printed on 100% recycled, chlorine-free French brand paper, made in Niles, Michigan. If you're as big a paper connoisseur as you are a wine connoisseur, you'll also want to know that it's 80# Dur-o-tone cover in "Newsprint Aged." The poster was printed, designed and tested in sunny Portland, Oregon with soy-based inks.

Special thanks to Doug Charles from Compass Wines, Erik Manz of Mountain Dome Winery, and Evelyn Lauer and Mike Wilson of He Sips, She Sips for their feedback on early drafts of this map.