In France, Italy and Spain wines are traditionally labelled by region, and not specifically by which grape varieties are in those wine as in Australian wines. This leads to some confusion when looking at rows of bottles with names of places on them, especially if you come from a country where the labels have rows of wines with grape varieties written on them. As Euro regions traditionally have strict rules as to which grapes are in wines with place names on them, you can predict the typical grapes according to the name. Otherwise it will be called a “Vin de pays”Vino de tavola””IGT” or table wine.
I get this question regularly so I thought I might put together a brief overview of which grapes to expect in the Euro named wines. One rule in Oz for blended wines is that the first named grape makes up the bigger part of that blend (e.g. Cabernet Merlot is different from a Merlot Cabernet in that the latter has more Merlot than Cabernet and vice versa):
FRANCE:
“Bordeaux“/”Medoc”/”Graves”/ and more= this is the most classic red blend of them all, traditionally Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and small parts of others. In Australia, a bottle labelled “Cabernet Merlot” is just a blend of these 2 grapes in the bordeaux style. Medoc is just a part of the left side of bordeaux which is more suited to growing Cabernet.
“St Emillion”/”Pomerol”= Are the main parts of the right side of bordeaux suited to Merlot and are generally mostly Merlot based.
“Sancerre”/”Puilly Fume“= Are from the loire valley close to Paris where they use a lot of Sauvignon Blanc for their whites. Not to be confused with the place in Burgundy called “Pouilly Fuisse” which uses Chardonnay.
“Bourgogne“/Burgundy and its myriad of subregions= mostly expensive, fatter looking bottles of the lighter elegant Pinot Noir in red, and Chardonnay in white. “Chablis” is lightly oaked or unoaked Chardonnay.
Cotes du Rhone/ Chateauneuf du Pape/ Gigondas/ Vacqueyras: Are wines of the south or the Rhone valley emulated in Australia by the triple blend of Grenache, Shiraz and Mourvedre (GSM or SGM depending on blend quantities).
Hermitage: is a place near Lyon which was the original place of straight Shiraz wines, similar to Hunter Valley Shiraz in style. Its neighbouring area, Cote Rotie, just north traditionally adds up to 20% of the white grape Viognier to their Shiraz to add to the colour and aromas, hence in Oz all these wines called “Shiraz Viognier” now.
Champagne: your famous bubbly is mostly early picked Chardonnay and Pinot Noir juice. Note that Pinot Noir is red and the skins are pressed off leaving you with a white wine.
ITALY:
Chianti/Brunello de montalcino/ Vino Nobile de montepulciano (excuse any spelling variances) : are wines from Tuscany mostly made with different clones of Sangiovese grapes. The Aussie Sangiovese vines generally don’t quite have the maturity yet to match a good Chianti. Not yet.
Barolo/ Barbaresco: are long living class wines from the North of Italy made with the Nebbiolo grape.
SPAIN:
“Rioja”/”Toro”/ “Ribera del Duero”: are reds from spain which are mostly from “Tempranillo” grapes. In Spain, Tempranillo is Red wine.
That is just a quick overview of the main ones and there will be many many variations. If you come across any you are not sure about, please feel free to leave a comment/query on this post and I will get back to you!
- WINEDUCATION - 
Great article Mitch.