What is better

[cabernet]

I have always adored french wines but over the last 15 years I have been going to California on a regular basis and have tasted some amazing wines from Napa and Santa Cruz mountains only to name a few. Except for the high end French reds and whites I think californian wines are actually better. What do you think ?

[EcclesCake]

I've visited a fair few wineries in Sonoma and Napa and agree they produce good wine. Sadly the best are produced in such small volumes they are only suited to domestic consumption. I have yet to find a decent Merlot in California but have had some excellent Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandels; whites have been OK without anything particularly memorable although Chardonnay is probably their strongest suit.

[ethandron]

i think if you like it then it doesn't matter one tiny little bit where it's from. personally, i love soft, fruity italian reds in the main. but it doesn't mean i don't enjoy some of the heavier almost chewey french reds too. i'm not very familiar with californian wines to be able to make that comparison though.

[maxi2]

Hard to make such comparisons really. Both France and California produce great wines and duff ones. Comparing a deep, red Zinfandel with a Claret just doesn't work for me, I enjoy them both for different reasons and I also enjoy an Oz Shiraz.

France has been suffering from arrogance, ignoring the rest of the world and not reacting to market changes and they are paying the price. At last they are waking up - they are starting to put grape varieties on their labels instead of "Beaujolais" or "Cotes de Rhone". My desert island wine? Old vines red zinfandel

[Chappers]

The problem with French wines, in fact the problem with nearly all old-world wines (with the exception of Italy) is that they insist on using traditional grape varieties and using the traditional techniques and their vineyards are now so old and their soil, so played out that you'd be forgiven for thinking French wine was musty/bland, especially now you can get such intensely rich and flavoursome wines from the new-world.

French wines require a longer maturation process and you need to leave them to breathe longer before drinking and wine snobs will insist that this brings out subtleties that new-world wines do not have yet it can be equally argued that the French are too arrogant to consider that anyone could possibly make a superior wine to them.

Ultimately, a wine is only as good as the person drinking it, deems it to be and personally I really cannot stomach the vast majority of old-world wines anymore.

I adore Champagne and I love Italian reds (you cannot go wrong with a Montepulciano) but I find French wine in general to be bland and musty and I find Spanish wine to be ridiculously acidic (I lived there for a while)

New-world wines however are so vibrant and fresh and rich that I just can't go back. Australia, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, California...they make wines that 300 years ago, would have been applauded in France but they're considered lower-class because the French say so (that's it in a nutshell)