Now that it is established that France is the favoured Old World Wine region amongst Vinocellar members, what is your favoured region of France and why?

Favourite French Region
Burgundy (Coted'Or and Cote du Nuits)
Burgundy(Chablis)
Burgundy (Beaujolais)
Bordeaux (Right Bank)
Bordeaux(left Bank)
Bordeaux(Sauturnes and Barsac)
Southern Rhone
Northern rhone
Loire (Chinon )
Loire (Sancerre and Pouilly)
Champagne
Alsace

I picked Burgundy (Cote D'Or) because of the wine I have tasted when a good producer with a good vineyard and a good vintage get together. A rarity but sublime all the same.

I chose Burgundy Cote d'Or/ Cote de Nuits. Why?

Because they are clearly the best. Any fool can see that!

Second choice would be N. Rhone followed by S. Rhone.

jb

FYI, "Cote D'or" includes the Cotes de Nuits and the Cote de Beaune. Needless to say, Cote D'or gets my vote.

Coted'Or hands down. Lovely wine region, outstanding wines (well, crappy ones also, to be sure, but when they are good, they are very good).

I would vote for the Bordeaux left bank mainly because of my ignorance of Burgundy. My trip there last year didn't help either. It was fun eating and drinking in Beaune, but visiting the wineries (vineyards actually) was pretty boring and shopping in the caves was not as rewarding as I had hoped. I'm still looking forward to my dream trip to Bordeaux.

Yeah, sorry about that.

Not a fair question! Cote D'or is my favorite French regions for reds and Alsace is my favorite region anywhere for whites. How am I supposed to answer this?

I refuse to answer because Gigondas deserves it's own special voting dot.

I picked Southern Rhone because of the combination of high quality and reasonable prices.

For years various pundits have beaten the drum for the Southern Rhone claiming high quality and reasonable prices. Based on prices for desirable Southern Rhones I have seen over the last year, peoples' definition of "reasonable" look inordinately elastic imo. Quality Southern Rhone wines all cost at least $40 and oftentimes considerably more for the bottles I am interested in purchasing. Sure you can still buy $8 Cotes du Rhone quaffers but I am not interested in laying down those kinds of wines.

Jones,

I find that for $40 I can get a much better Chateauneuf du Pape than I am going to get a Red Burgundy. I also find that many of the $20 Gigondas and some of the better Cote du Rhone village wines are much better then the simple $20 Bordeauxs that are produced.

The total absolute quality does not achieve the greatness of other regions but the price paid for quality points makes up for that.

Not the Best, Just my favorite.

I wouldn't sell the region short TCK. Rayas or Hommage a Jacques Perrin can be just as great as wines produced by other areas in France - however Rayas and Hommage are priced like many wines from other areas as well.

That said, prices for many of the highest level CdPs (Domaine de la Mordoree, Cuvee des Generations, les Quartz, Domaine de Cailloux for example) have skyrocketed recently. The region is not the same bargain hunters delight it was years ago.

Still relatively cheaper but much less so for the most desirable wines of the region imo.

I would agree with all of your points. As I said there are always exceptions, prices are climbing. However, I still feel I can participate in this region on a budget and get better wine then I can in the rest France.

For the record, I chose Right Bank. It's the region that first opened my eyes to Bordeaux with its (relatively) fruit forward wines of 1998.

I still enjoy their wines tremendously.

The Southern Rhone would be my #2.