Well YOU do, but the average American wine shopper has only a cursory knowledge of wine, largely based on grape variety. Few French wines provide that specificity on the label, so my thought is that they have very little by which to orient themselves to a French bottle.
I’ve been around a bit, but mostly with new world wine, so I could probably make a couple of decent guesses if I came upon a bottle of Dry Creek wine with no variety shown. I AM, though, interested in whether the difference is that (with French wine) people don’t need the comfort of variety specificity but trust in the terroir and familiarity with producers. Has the apparent lessening of some restrictions on what grapes can be used in some regions changed anything re French wine? Has that made a difference, or is it not impacting the ‘better’, more traditional, wine areas?
