We think we know where to look for fine white wine in France: Burgundy, obviously; Alsace Riesling, Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé, Pessac-Léognan and a few other highly regarded whites from Bordeaux are all in the pantheon. But the picture is changing, for a number of reasons: climate change, and a renewed focus on whites to align with drinkers’ preferences principal among them.

Down in deepest Languedoc, on the limestone outcrop of La Clape, both red and white wines are made, but it’s the whites, made primarily from Bourboulenc, that are the more original and cause for genuine excitement.

Bourboulenc had been a rather forgettable peripheral member of the gang of varieties permitted in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, valued mostly for its ability to hold onto acidity in Mediterranean heat. Until it made it to La Clape, where it must make up at least 40% of the blend for whites. Here, on the sun-blasted limestone of this intensely maritime, garrigue-covered, one-time island, Bourboulenc has been able to demonstrate its main character energy.

It brings not just a sense of freshness in a hot climate, but great texture on the palate, and an appetising salinity: in short, it expresses a sense of place. Whether oaked or unoaked, the best examples from La Clape make for compelling, satisfying wines which have a personality that you just don’t find anywhere else in France.

Over in the southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape had been the only game in town for those looking for fine whites. For a long time, it was the sole Cru level white wine in the south of the region. That picture has changed over the years, with the emergence of Crus such as Lirac, which has the right to make wine of all three colours – though it must be said that its white wines, though good, have not so far troubled the ranks of fine wines.

But now, in a story that began over 50 years ago, producers in the southern Rhône Cru of Gigondas are able to make and bottle white wines with the name of their village on the label, instead of merely entry level Côtes du Rhône blanc.

The jagged limestone outcrops of the Dentelles which loom over the village of Gigondas look like prime white wine territory, combining altitude and limestone. And indeed they were, until 1971, when the village was elevated to Cru status – but only for red and rosé wines. It reads like a Grimm’s fairytale, a blessing with a curse in the tail: you shall have your wish to be a Cru, but will never be able to attach the name Gigondas to your white wines.

Most growers abandoned white grapes, understandably, but a few cussed producers persisted and now (since the 2023 vintage) all the village’s growers have been rewarded with Cru status for their white wines.

As in Languedoc, a once overlooked variety is taking centre stage: Clairette, which must make up 70% of the blend. An ancient variety originating somewhere in the Midi, Clairette was most often deployed to add a fresh lift to the Rhône’s ripe, round whites based on varieties such as Grenache Blanc, Roussanne and Marsanne. The combination of limestone, altitude and – for producers like Louis Barruol at Château de St-Cosme and Pierre Amadieu, who held onto their vines through the thin times – old vine Clairette, make for a fresh, almost bracing white wine, with flavours of pithy citrus and fennel. We also know that it makes wines that can age, thanks to the existence of older vintages of wines like Louis Barruol’s Le Poste, a 100% Clairette wine. Gigondas blanc is a long way from the paradigm of fleshy, low-acid wines that we associate with the southern Rhône and perhaps points the way to an entirely new white style from the region.

Over on the other bank of the Rhône, the village of Laudun is also celebrating its promotion to Cru – and its white wines were a key part of the dossier to justify its elevation. Clairette is not necessarily the lead grape here, but many of Laudun’s most impressive whites are based on it.

Where next might we find a once overlooked grape variety or appellation in France that could join the ranks of fine white wines? Aligoté in Burgundy has already made the leap from high acid kir royal fodder to sought after bottlings, now that climate change has made its trademark high acidity a virtue rather than a curse. It has also benefitted from interested and gifted growers, who have focused on better sites and lower yields.

And what about Tressallier? Could this variety, in the distinctly under-the-radar area of Saint Pourçain in the upper reaches of the Loire Valley be destined for greatness?  A new generation of growers and neo-vignerons are determined to at least put this usefully fresh and somewhat mineral variety forward for our consideration.

There could even be an upside to the government-sanctioned vine pulling schemes underway in the southern Rhône and Languedoc, an effort to address overproduction, primarily of red wine. Could we be witnessing the start of a re-focusing on white wines in these traditionally red wine dominant areas? And who knows, such a programme might unwittingly uncover more great white wines of the future.

Photo by Harli Marten on Unsplash