France

Few would argue that France is the country that long ago set the standards by which wine is judged. There are of course exceptions; Germany's Rieslings, Spain's Sherry and Portugal's Port are examples of non-French wines that are universally accepted as models to be admired and emulated. But no other country in the world can boast anything like France's influence over the wine world's now well-established benchmarks. The wine styles produced in Champagne, Alsace, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Loire and the Rhone have become targets that countless winegrowers around the world aim at, in the first instance by planting the same grape varieties. If you still have a bit of exploring to do before you can say you know well the world of wine, there can be no better place to start (or finish!) than France.