French wine map from this website. Click for more info. I often poke fun at the French for their superior attitude when it comes to anything having to do with wine and other gastronomic treats. In fact, some of our Gallic friends seem to think the term connoisseur (which is a French word after all) should only be used to describe their fellow countrymen. While these traits could be described as arrogance, I prefer to give the French the benefit of the doubt ( even though my sometimes guest on the WineBoy webcast -- Pierre N’Cest Pas -- seems to embody the snobby, overbearing French wine bore that we all love to hate. Check out the latest WineBoy (episode 26) and you’ll see what I mean.

But to be fair, we should acknowledge the tremendous contributions the French have made to wine. Their innovations in the vineyard and cellar for the past several hundred years have been the foundation and catalyst for the dynamic growth of the wine industry in the rest of the world. And their many world famous wines continue to command the greatest respect of wine lovers everywhere.

So today, we’ll take a quick look at the major wine -producing regions in that land of vines and tell you about the principal grape varieties that produce some of the world’s greatest wine. There are ten distinct wine appellations in France and hundreds of smaller sub-regions within those broader areas.

Bordeaux In this most famous of all wine regions in the world, you’ll find the most sought after wines anywhere. The reds are usually blends of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, petit verdot and malbec while the whites are comprised of sauvignon blanc and semillon.

BurgundyIn days of yore, we thought Burgundy was a big red wine in a big green jug. Of course, Burgundy is a very renowned wine region where some of the greatest red and white wine is produced. In the northern part of Burgundy, the red wine is pinot noir and the white is chardonnay and just a small amount of pinot blanc. In southern Burgundy in the Beaujolais region, the red grape is gamay.

Champagne Interestingly, two-thirds of the grapes that produce Champagne are comprised of pinot noir and pinot meunier – both red grapes. The white grape of the region is chardonnay, which is blended with the two reds to make this lovely bubbly.

Alsace In Alsace, the only red grape produced is pinot noir which is just a drop in the very large bucket of white wines for which the region is known. These wines are pinot blanc, pinot gris, riesling, gewürztraminer, and sylvanner. RhoneThe Rhone Valley begins just south of Lyon and extends south to near the city of Avignon. The most famous reds of the Rhone are syrah, grenache, mourvedre and carignan. The principal white grapes are clairette, grenache blanc, marsanne, rousanne and viognier.

Loire The Chateau country of the Loire Valley is a beautiful region where white wine is more prominent than red. The whites of chenin blanc, sauvignon blanc along with the less famous melon comprise the famous wines of the Loire. The main red wine is called Chinon and is made from cabernet franc.

Languedoc Roussillon Located in the south central part of France along the Mediterranean coast, this very warm region has in recent years produced surprisingly excellent wines at value prices. The reds are carignan, syrah, Grenache and cabernet sauvignon while the main white grapes are clairette, marsanne and rousanne.

Provence Directly to the east of Languedoc, much of Provence lies along the French Riviera. Red wines (and roses) produced in the region are made from grenache, syrah, and mourvedre. The whites are comprised of ugni blanc and clairette.

Southwest The wines of the Southwest are also finding their way to our shores particularly reds such as cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc. White wines are made from sauvignon blanc and Semillon.

NOTE: To see some of the wines of these regions, watch the latest WineBoy webcast.

Photo (at right): Arneis, which is produced in the Piedmont region of Italy, is a crisp white with green apple flavors and a sprightly touch of fizz A note to “Red Wine Nation:” White wines are good and getting better!

I feel the need to make this declarative statement because there is a growing sentiment among some wine drinkers (mostly those who are new to the fold) that white wine is an inferior product and, except for the occasional bottle of chardonnay, is not to be considered seriously.

Those of you who read my words on wine know that I will never tell you what you should drink. If you want to match that hunk of filet mignon with a jug of Vito’s Thunder Mountain Red, so be it. However, if you think Vito’s elixir has no peer, you might want to buy a bottle of witch hazel which is probably slightly better. The point is: if you think you’ve found wine Nirvana, you haven’t because there are always pleasant surprises to be discovered in the world of wine.

That’s why I get upset when someone claims to be a “red wine only” advocate. For instance, these folks are happy to slurp down a bottle of full-bodied, high alcohol, young California cabernet sauvignon (without food ) as a pre- dinner cocktail. They revel in their “trophy” wines and rationalize their overindulgence by proclaiming the healthful effects of drinking red wine (their credo: if a little bit of red wine is good for you, then a lot of it must be even better).

Health issues aside, if you’re limiting yourself to just red – or just white – or just cabernet… well, you’re missing out on one of the most important, enjoyable and enlightening aspects of wine appreciation: the exploration and discovery of new wines.

For example, I recently had the delightful pleasure of sipping a glass of Torrontes, a white wine from Argentina which is now slowly making its way to the US and will be in our fair state in the near future.

For me, Torrontes is kind of like a cross between viognier, muscat and sauvignon blanc. It has peach, herbs and mineral flavors and a good balance between fruit and acid, making it a nice accompaniment to oriental dishes and spicy foods.

You might also look for Arneis, which is produced in the Piedmont region of Italy and is a crisp white with green apple flavors and a sprightly touch of fizz on the finish. Plainly cooked seafood is a superb match for this wine.

Another white worth seeking out is semillon (pronounced semi-on). Made famous as the most expensive sweet wine on earth (Chateau d’yquem), most semillon is made as a dry table wine.

L’Ecole No.41 Semillon from Washington State is one of my favorites. It’s a lovely, crisp, yet rich white that exhibits a stony, mineral nuance and round flavors of peach and figs. Try it with chicken breasts stuffed with sun dried tomatoes and gruyere cheese.

Earlier this month, I conducted a tasting which I called the “The Whites of Spring.” With warmer weather making its appearance, I usually opt for wines – either white or red – that are lighter. It just seems to fit this time of year. I selected these particular wines to demonstrate the wide variety of excellent whites available in West Virginia. Here are a few for your consideration.

2006 Beringer Gewurztraminer ($9) - This Gewurztraminer’s delicate balance of spicy aromas and floral and citrus flavors is enhanced by a long, cool fermentation. Try it as a porch sipper with cheese and fruit or with Thai food. 2006 Martín Códax Albariño $(11) -Albarino from Spain is terrific white that exudes richness, yet it is crisp with flavors of melon and herbs with an underlying minerality. Kind of like sauvignon blanc without the grassiness. Great with lemon sole.

2007 The Crossings Sauvignon Blanc ($17) – This wine from New Zealand (photo at right) fairly bursts on the palate with a refreshing zing! What’s a zing? Well, I guess you could say it’s beyond fresh and crisp with ripe citrus and melon flavors that excite the palate. Pasta dressed in a pesto comprised of basil, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, parmigiano reggiano and pine nuts would provide the perfect match for The Crossings.

Inspiration is a wonderful thing! After attending a spectacular wine dinner at the Bridge Road Bistro recently, I was inspired by the culinary virtuosity of chef Paco Aceves to create my own plebeian version of gastronomic heaven. It's a dish I’ll call “Doin the Spicy Chicken.”

If you’re old enough, you probably remember doing the “Funky Chicken.” While that dance required a few nimble moves, laying down steps for the Spicy Chicken is a lot easier, and today I’m going to tell you how. I’m also going to suggest a few wines that will not only tame that chicken, but also enhance the flavors of this nifty little dish. If you haven’t done so already, it is definitely time to dust off the old grill and get ready to barbeque some de-feathered edibles! Here’s how:

Doin' the Spicy Chicken Recipe 1. Buy two frying chickens, remove those unspeakable parts from the cavity and cut off any excess chicken fat.

2. Then work a long, thin, boning knife under the skin of the chicken (all over if possible) and create pockets between this skin and the meat.

3. Now mix together a teaspoon each of chili powder, salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, cumin. Add to this mixture three tablespoons of olive oil and three finely chopped garlic cloves. This should have a pasty consistency.

4. With a small spoon, put about half the mixture under the skin of the chickens. Rub the rest inside the cavity and all over the outside of the chicken.

5. Prepare one-half cup each of wild rice and brown rice separately. Follow the instructions on the package for preparation of the rice. When cooked, blend the rice together and put to the side to cool.

6. In a sauté pan, heat four tablespoons of olive oil and add one-half cup each of chopped onion, green pepper and celery.

7. Finely dice one jalapeno pepper and add to the pan three ounces of slivered almonds.

8. Sauté the mixture for about seven minutes and mix with the rice. Salt and pepper to taste.

9. When the rice mixture reaches room temperature, stuff the chickens and prepare your grill.

10. If you have a charcoal grill, move the hot coals to either side of the kettle and put the chickens in the center (not directly over the coals) and put the cover on the grill. With a gas grill, just light one side and place the chickens on the other side.

11. When the wings pull easily from the bird (usually after about one hour) the chicken is cooked and you’ve done the Spicy Chicken!

SO, WHICH WINES will not only stand up to this spicy bird, but also enhance enjoyment of the overall meal? Here are three that will do the trick.

2004 Palazzo Della Torre ($22) – This zinfandel-like red (photo at right)  from the Veneto region of Italy takes Valpolicella to a whole new level of intensity. Rich, robust and full of dark fruit flavors, this wine is an excellent choice with the dish.

Cristalino Cava Brut ($12) – Cava is the term for sparkling wine in Spain and, while it is made in the Champagne method, it is lighter, less complex and more sprightly than the stuff from France. The Cristalino not only cuts through the spiciness of the dish, it also provides a thirst-quenching element along with green apple flavors and crisp acidity.

2005 Barossa Jack Shiraz ($14) – Named after his Jack Russell terrier, the winemaker at Barossa Jack has made a wine that is definitely no dog. This baby has a nice balance of dark fruit flavors, spice and acidity that will marry with our spicy chicken.

Each year about this time, I join a group of West Virginia wine lovers who are called upon to select the best wines produced by state wineries in seven different categories (e.g., dry red; semi-sweet white; dry white; dessert, etc.). This annual tasting gives me a pretty good indication and historical perspective on the quality of Mountain State wines since we've been judging the competition for about 15 years. I'm happy to report that West Virginia-made wine has improved steadily over the past decade. I'm also happy to report that the number of wineries has increased from just a few to 17 in the past ten years.

While many of these wines can be good to exceptional, wine makers in the state face very difficult growing conditions that force them to use vines that can limit their ability to make great wines. Why? There are many key elements to producing a good bottle of wine, including soil, climate, geography and wine making competence. But the most essential component is the grape itself, and the family of vines to which it belongs.

The world's most famous wine grapes such as cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, pinot noir, riesling, sauvignon blanc, zinfandel and a thousands of others belong to a class known as vitus vinifera. Two other classes of wine grapes are vitus labrusca, native American vine-producing grapes such as concord and catawba, and French-American hybrid grapes such as seyval blanc, vidal blanc and chambourcin.

Labursca can make decent, but distinctly flavored wines while French-American hybrids (which are French vines grafted onto American rootstock) produce wines significantly better than labrusca but not as fine as vinifera vines.

So, in the quality hierarchy, vinifera grapes produce, by a far measure, the best quality wines followed by French-American hybrids and then labrusca varietals. The point of all this is simply that vinifera grapes make the best wine. Why, then, don't more West Virginia wine makers produce vinifera grapes if these make superior wines? Well, the fact is that labrusca and French-American hybrids are considerably more hardy and prolific than vinifera. They are also less susceptible than vinifera to mold, diseases and the sometimes harsh realities of West Virginia weather.

In other words, vinifera vines are very delicate and require more moderate temperatures than we typically experience in West By Golly. Our summers are too hot and our winters are too cold to sustain and successfully grow vinifera in the state on consistent basis.

It's really amazing, then, that wineries in Virginia -- just across the Allegheny Mountains -- can grow cabernet, chardonnay and even viognier (as well as other vinifera varieties) with relative ease while our climate limits our ability to be successful. And while it is certainly more difficult to grow vinifera in West Virginia, it is not impossible to do so and one winery in particular has been successful at it for years.

Charles Whitehill is the owner and wine maker at Potomac Highland Winery in Keyser and he goes to great lengths and takes great pains to insure that his riesling and chardonnay vines survive the harsh winters and hot summers of the eastern West Virginia mountains. But the results, as far as I am concerned, are well worth the effort.

I'm sure we will see more West Virginia wineries add vinifera to their stable of wines in the coming years. Still, I am really impressed with the overall quality of the wines being produced in our state and I hope you will try them. The wineries are also fun places to visit and usually have tasting facilities where you can sample the wines. However, because these wineries are relatively small operations, it is always a good practice to call ahead before visiting them.

Below is a listing of state wineries with contact information I obtained from the WV Department of Agriculture website.

Cascarelli's Old Country WineRt. 3, Box 55A
Salem, WV 26426
304/782-2768

Daniel Vineyards200 Twin Oaks Road
Crab Orchard, WV 25827
Phone: 304/252-9750

Fisher Ridge Winery 325 McKinley Avenue
Charleston, WV 25314
Phone: 304/345-2306

Forks of Cheat Winery2811 Stewartstown Road
Morgantown, WV 26508
Phone: 304/598-2019

Jones Cabin Run Vineyards HC 71Box 129F
Tanner, WV 26137
Phone: 304/462-4446

Kenco FarmsP. O. Box 454
Sutton, WV 26601
Phone: 304/765-7980

Kirkwood Winery45 Winery Lane
Summersville, WV 26651
Phone/FAX: 304/872-7332

Lambert's Vintage Wines, LLC190 Vineyard Drive
Weston, WV 26452
Phone: 304/269-3973 or 4903

Martin's Mist WineryRR 2, Box 104Buckeye, WV 24924
304/799-6455

Mountaineer Winery3252 Mason Dixon Highway
Core, WV 26529
Phone: 304/879-5912

Potomac Highland WineryRR 6, Box 6980
Keyser, WV 26726
Phone and Fax: 304/788-3066

Roane Vineyards1585 Reedyville Road
Spencer, WV 25276
Phone: 304/927-1939

Robert F. Pliska and Co. Winery101 Piterra Place
Purgitsville, WV 26852-0101
Phone: 1-877-RGRAPES

Toscano in Appalachia WinesRR 1, Box 251
LeRoy, WV 25252
304/275-3936

Watts Roost Vineyard2245 Blue Sulphur Pike
Lewisburg, WV 24901
304/645-5308 or 304/667-8843

West-Whitehill Winery 4484U.S. 220 S.
Moorefield, WV 26836
Phone: 304/538-2605

WolfCreek WineryHC 75, Box 36A
Wolfcreek, WV 24993
Phone: 304/772-5040

One of my favorite blogger/columnists is Eric Asimov of the New York Times. He has a weekly blog called The Pour, where he explores broad issues relating to the fruit of the vine. One of his recent blogs dealt with the premise of a new book, "The Wine Trials" by Robin Goldstein.

The introductory paragraph to Asimov’s April 11 blog reads: “In yet another anti-intellectual effort to take fancy-schmancy wine down a peg or two, a new book purports to demonstrate that price bears little relation to quality and that the experts don’t know what they are talking about. The evidence? Blind taste tests of 540 wines by 500 volunteer tasters.”

That blog and the comments it elicited got me thinking about how we all make choices regarding the wines we select for every day drinking and for special occasions. Certainly, we can all agree that quality wines that offer great value are worth seeking out. So how do we determine what is not only an acceptable wine, but one that is exceptional? Well, let me take a crack at it.

Some of us depend upon rating systems (such as Robert Parker's 100 point scale). Others depend on buying wine from exceptional vintages and from specific wine regions like Bordeaux. Still others focus on the wineries that consistently produce exceptional wine or (heaven forbid!) on the supposed relationship between ascending price (of wine) and quality.

How do you judge the quality of a wine? I’ve advised people to taste them blind. In other words, cover the label (by placing the bottles in plain brown bags) to take away any possible price or winery bias so that you can truly judge the product on its quality. Blind tastings are something I do regularly so I can objectively evaluate the aroma, taste and visual qualitative elements that are the basis for whether I recommend a wine or not.

While all these evaluation methods have merit (except for basing your selection solely on price), I think there is one that we oftentimes overlook that is also important to consider. Here is an example of what I mean.

So there we were, sitting in an outdoor trattoria perched high above Lake Como in Northern Italy. It was a beautiful summer evening, the food was simple but delicious. And the wine? The wine was produced by the family that owned the restaurant and was among the best that had ever passed these lips.

That entire multi-course meal with wine set me back all of $35, but this was one of the best wine and food experiences of my life. Why, you ask? Well actually the reason has to do with one of the most important elements of food and wine appreciation, but also one of the most understated: context.

Do not underestimate how the setting or context of your tasting affects your perception of the quality of the wine. I’ve had experiences where the wine I was sipping was rated exceptionally by just about every well-respected critic, and yet I could not find in it any redeeming qualities. Why? Well sometimes it has to do with whom I am forced to consume the stuff, the location of the tasting or even my mood.

Business meetings, where tensions are high and where the food and wine are secondary to accomplishing some corporate objective, are for me among the most difficult times to enjoy and objectively evaluate wine. At such dinners, I am tempted to order a wine that I actually dislike so that it will not be a distraction to the sometimes distasteful subjects under discussion – but, of course, I don’t.

So the next time you ‘re using your critical wine appreciation skills to determine the quality of a specific bottle, please add the element of context to the equation. Oh, of course I could not resist adding my comment to The Pour on the subject of the price-versus-quality argument. Here’s what I added to that discussion:

‘The journey toward wine appreciation begins with one tentative, small step and, hopefully, becomes a passionate lifelong exploration. That a book such as 'The Wine Trials' has an audience is testament to the growing interest in wine in this country, and that is a good thing! While we more experienced wine lovers can engage in sometimes pedantic discussions about the validity or premise of such a book, we should probably also revel in the fact that the author found 500 people interested enough to participate in the exercise. I’m constantly searching for wines that offer both quality and value, and when I find such gems, it gives me great pleasure to share that knowledge with my readers. I’ll probably buy the book and do my own evaluation on a few of the wines suggested. Then, based upon my very unscientific conclusions, I’ll decide whether to recommend it to those few souls who think my opinion counts.’