"DJ" wrote in message
...
I have been slowly becoming a red wine fan over the last few years and now
I
love it.
We went to France in August (Dordogne - Bergerac area) and picked up
several
bottles of local red wine from wine fairs. The wines I picked up were
lovely - full of flavour and very smooth.

On the label they all specify "Methode Traditionnelle". When I look for
French wines here in the UK non of them specify this. Exactly what does
"Methode Traditionnelle" entail ?
Is it the same as being aged for 12 Months in Oak Barrels ?

Any info greatly appreciated, and any tips on what to look out for on the
labels to get a good quality bottle.

Cheers

DJ

I've only ever seen "Methode Traditionelle" on the labels of sparkling wine.
Of course in France all sparkling wine is white or rose, yet you say its on
red wine labels, and not even sparkling! Odd. I've never seen that.
For sparkling wine it means that the wine is made to sparkle by the
traditional method of a second fermentation in the bottle, (like Champagne)
as opposed to the non-traditional method of carbonation, as soft drinks are
made to "sparkle".
French wine aged in barrels will say "en barrique" somewhere on the label.

By the way how did your wine travel? I went to France in July, the Vendee
region. Its not a wine producing area but I brought back 20 -30 bottles of
various wines, some in half cases, some single bottles.
Trouble is, at least half of them were corked! I've been to France and
brought back wine several times before (I live in England) and never had any
thing like as many spoilt bottles.

I wonder if there's any way I could avoid this problem? Or was it just bad
luck?

Steve