France, home of Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne, is undoubtedly the most important wine producing country in the world. For centuries, it produced wine in greater quantities than any other country. Wine is ingrained in French culture at almost every level of society; it is the drink of the elite and the common people, and a key symbol of Roman Catholicism, the majority religion in France. The diversity of French wines is due, in part, to the country's wide variety of climates.
Champagne, its northernmost region, enjoys one of the coolest climates in the wine-growing world, in stark contrast to the hot and dry Rhône Valley. Bordeaux, in the southwest, has a maritime climate strongly influenced by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and by the various rivers that wind between its vineyards. Far from any oceanic influence, eastern regions like Burgundy and Alsace have a continental climate, with hot, dry summers and cold winters. In the deep south of France, Provence and Languedoc-Roussillon enjoy a decidedly Mediterranean climate, characterized by hot summers and relatively mild winters.
Each sub-region can be defined by its particular geographical characteristics, which in turn create specific characteristics in the wines produced there. From the granite hills of Beaujolais to the famous limestone slopes of Chablis and the gravels of the Médoc, the sites on which the French vineyard was developed are considered vitally important and are at the heart of the notion of terroir.
