Francophile wine drinkers have never had it so good. For all the talk of French wine in crisis, aggravated by escalating prices at the top of the pyramid, the many price tiers below have produced rafts of delicious drinking over the past 18 months. As the Top 100 has shown over this time, France, with its centuries of vinicultural traditions and viticultural expertise, has made the rest of the world’s winemakers look like beginners in every price category. Land and labour in France, compared to New World countries such as Chile and Argentina, are expensive, yet the Gauls have even managed to produce the majority of the best sub-£5 bottles for the past few Top 100 seasons.

France has been helped hugely by excellent harvests in 2004 and 2005, the latter producing “vintage of the century” quality in Bordeaux and almost that level in Burgundy. As Amanda Skinner from merchants Lay & Wheeler put it: “The joy of the 2005 French vintage has meant we have had the best Bordeaux campaign ever, and the best Burgundy campaign.”

Such euphoria may not last, however. Just two years ago, when the New World wine assault on the bastions of la belle France was at its most brutal and the unbalanced, heatwave-affected 2003 French vintage was on sale, Australian, Chilean and Californian producers took most of the sub-£5 Top 100 slots and matched the winning sub-£8 Gallic red offerings. And if you think Britain had a bad summer this year, it was a lot worse in France. After the rain came a spell of humid weather, bringing with it rampant rot. So France is likely to have a tough time again here when the 2007 vintage filters through.

France, despite vital EU reforms banning surplus wine distillation, continues to have the same problems commencing this year’s harvest as it has for the past decade. French consumption is falling, the global wine glut continues, as does competition from New World producers. The yield-reducing drought in Australia has eased the situation, but the weak US dollar gives California wines added appeal.

Every reason to tuck into some good-value Gallic greats while we still can. Try Jean-Marc Brocard’s 2005 Organic Chablis, with its fat, lively, vegetal fruit (£11.99, Marks & Spencer), the complex, floral, honey and citrus-spiked 2005 G de Guiraud dry white Bordeaux (£7.99, Majestic), plus the hazelnut and lime fruit of Vincent Girardin’s masterly 2004 white burgundy, Meursault Le Limozin (£20.99, Waitrose).

Great reds to root out include the Tain l’Hermitage co-operative’s ripe, peppery, violet-scented 2005 Crozes-Hermitage (£6.99, Sainsbury’s), the ripe, cedary 2005 Château Ségonzac (£7.99, Waitrose), and Lamy-Pillot’s delicious red 2005 Chassagne-Montrachet, with its savoury, gamey, almost Marmite-laden fruit (£14.99, Waitrose).

jane.macquitty@thetimes.co.uk

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