Wine with Leslie Williams: Don't give up on French wines

A couple of weeks back I reported that French wine sales had dropped further in the last year. They now rank behind Spain, Australia and Chile. French producers are not having it easy at the moment and with the vintage in full swing as I write this, most regions will be down, some over 20% thanks to extreme weather from frost and hailstones at flowering to heatwaves and yet more hail.

Don’t give up on them yet however. France can still compete at every wine price as you will have seen in some of the recent wine sales. The Lidl French Food and Wine promotion is on at the moment with a small clutch of new French wines on offer. I pick out two below but you can also try its Morgon (€12) and Macon Villages (€8.49). There are less new wines this year which is a pity and no fine Bordeaux this time. I must admit to being partial to this sale as I always pick up some sauccisson sec and tarte Alsacienne.