What's the difference?

Before we go on what exactly is the difference between Motherland and Fatherland again?

Dad's larger with different plumage?

We celebrate one in May and ignore the other in June?

We don't know but that's probably all right as the distinction can't be all that important - if there is on

However, we do know that France is neither the Motherland or the Fatherland of wine - even though one of our Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, certainly regarded it as such.

It is true that our French friends have had an outsized, and deserved, influence on wine production and perception around the world.

For many of us our first experience with wine was from there, if it wasn't from right here in California.

Burgundy and Bordeax are probably still the two most famous wine growing regions in the world although Napa has come on strong in the last fifty years.

France is lucky to have a variety of climate regions and geological structures that allows a diversity of grapes to flourish. Warmer, more generous varities in the Rhone region, structure Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot based wines in Bordeaux and Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in Burgundy (among others in). We could go on and on but it's more fun to try some of them than pontificate, so join us this week for our second week in France.

We will be bringing out wine from the Loire Valley and Burgundy for you to try. Lighter, lower fruit than most here in California but well worth your consideration.

Come join us.