What kind of cheap (but delicious) red wine is served in small cafes?

Question

My husband and I went to Paris for our honeymoon and whenever we went to our neighborhood cafe, they served the most delicious red wine in a decanter. It was the table/house wine so it must have been rose or some sort of burgandy. Any thoughts or ideas? Merci!

Answer 1

More and more, they serve a red wine from south , e.g. "Côtes du Ventoux". Burgundy wines are much more expensive.

Answer 2

perhaps a beaujoloais? (sp?)  it's a very french wine.  and very delicous too.

Answer 3

Please do not be offended but I suspect that you are not much of a wine drinker if you can say "it must have been rose or some sort of burgandy."

While there is a rose made in Burgunday called Marsannay, its something of an oddity.

Burgundy is best known for its big red wines (which are made mostly from pinot noir grapes) and named for the producer such as Montrachet. Lesser wines in this same category have many names depending on the village from which they arise.

Whites are made from Chardonnay in the area of Burgundy called Chablis. As has been mentioned above, Beaujolais, a lighter red is also from Burgundy.

You probably had many different wines which shared nothing in common other than that they were red. That each was delicious can be accounted for by three things:

1) That the French standard for wine is high to begin with;

2) That the proprietors of cafes take considerable pride in searching out good buys to serve their customers and;

3) Most importantly, you were drinking wine in Paris and on your honeymoon. Nothing, after all, improves the quality of wine as much as to drink it with someone you love.

EDIT@Paddinton: While it is true that Beaujolis is a seperate AOC region it is administratively part of  both the Saône-et-Loire department and the Rhône-Alpes. (which is to say Burgundy and the Rhone) The question is whether a wine from Burgundy which is in the Beaujolis AOC is still "from Burgundy".

You will also note that we are all trying to explain this  to someone who is likely an American and is used to the American habit of naming wines for wither their grapes or using broad regional naming classifications..ie. Chardonnay and Chablis.

Answer 4

hi, it was a very famous french wine called "chateau d'merde'.  It is delicious!

Answer 5

all "vins de pays" such as Gaillac, Corbières, Chinon, Gamay de Touraine, for the red ones

Sauvignon ( which is not a region as you know ), Saumur, Alsace, SANCERRE( great one)- for the white ones -

If you can order bread and raw ham, or saucisson, much better - to drink wine "straight" is not french -

Those wines are the one that you typically find in bistrots -

Popular bars tend to disappear in France, job being hard, and taxes unbreathable -

So don't expect even on popular wines, really cheap prices,

2/3€ /glass will be a current price, with differences if you stand up at the bar ( cheaper ) or sit down ( + expensive )

Most of the times ( that's your question actually ) good wines in decanters (carafes) are from good regions, but being above quotas have no right to the "appellation" - that's the kind of overproductions that you buy cheaper in bars and restaurants and if you ask the boss he'll tell you where the wine is from -

@"As has been mentioned above, Beaujolais, a lighter red is also from Burgundy"  -

Burgundy is burgundy and beaujolais are beaujolais - some people here should restrain saying so basic countersenses

"Chablis is the white burgundy" ? - Chablis is the northern part of

burgundy close to Vezelay and separate -but there are other prestigious white Burgundies such as the famous Montrachet serial - Puligny and Chassagne being the better and more famous white burg. wines -

To write on french wine requires skills - That's the reason why I never go to the " food and drink " section where the basic subject is "my hangovers" and "what's an affordable Zin" - this section is a desperate and hopeless one -