Making (and drinking) some of the world’s best wine is a point of pride for France, which is neck-and-neck with Italy every year for most wine production globally. Among the best-known wine regions are the Loire Valley, Burgundy, and Bordeaux, but wine is everywhere in this country.
It’s time to raise a glass to France’s underrated wine regions. Fantastic fizz isn’t made just in Champagne; deep and complex reds don’t solely hail from Bordeaux and the Rhône; and there’s more to rosé than the big names in Provence. These six less-visited French wine regions are delightful to explore, whether you want to get into a serious tasting tour or simply stop off to sample a glass or two. To find wineries in any of these regions, zoom in on the region on whatever map app you use and search domaine. Nearly all wineries offer tastings, usually €5–€7 for three to four wines. Bottles tend to start at €12.
Lot
If you like malbec, you’ll love the so-called black wines of Cahors, an area in the Lot region. These intense and inky reds have used malbec (known here as côt) since the Middle Ages—long before the grape took hold in Argentina’s Andean vineyards, where most of the world’s malbec is now grown.
Here in the Lot region of southwest France, about three hours inland from Bordeaux, it reigns supreme. Dark, complex wines are a fit amid the Lot’s dramatic landscapes, where rivers have carved monumental steep-sided valleys and complex cave systems over millennia. The town of Cahors itself, dating back to Roman times, might be the best base for tastings and tours, but leave time to visit ancient clifftop towns like St. Cirq Lapopie and Rocamadour; their precipitous locations atop rocky crags might leave you needing a glass at the end of the day.
Where to stay:
Right in the center of Cahors stands La Bellours, an old stone house with five modern rooms. They’re simple but comfortable, with handsome rustic wooden headboards and rainforest showerheads. This is a guesthouse/hotel where you can chat with the owners and fellow guests over breakfast served on the terrace or while lazing by the pool.
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The perfect pairing: Meaty wines can take rich flavors—splurge on some locally foraged black truffles.
The grape harvest in Limoux can start as early as the end of August.
Photo by OTLimouxin-C. Deschamps
Limoux
Occitanie, southwestern France
Limoux might just produce the greatest sparkling wines you’ve never tried. It’s nearly impossible to confirm, but many wine historians (and Limoux’s wineries themselves) say the world’s first sparkling wine was invented by monks in the neighboring commune of Saint-Hilaire around 1530. The wines aren’t really exported, either, so a bottle carried carefully back to the USA makes a welcome gift.
Start with blanquette de Limoux, made with a local white grape, mauzac. Then there’s some superb crémant, close in taste to champagne. It’s made from chardonnay and chenin blanc and aged to the same exacting standards as your favorite bubbly, including at least nine months in the bottle.
These wines deserve a spectacular setting—and this is where Limoux delivers. The countryside is dotted with ancient fortifications built by the Cathars, a semi-Christian sect that flourished here in the 12th century. Wander inside the walls of UNESCO-listed citadel city Carcassonne, where some sort of fortification has stood since pre-Roman times.
Where to stay:
The Château des Ducs de Joyeuse is a walled, late 16th-century castle; its 34 rooms have wooden shutters, stone walls, and medieval-style lamps. Between winetastings nearby, play a round of pétanque or cool off with a swim.
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The perfect pairing: Dry or even extra dry blanquette de Limoux is an ideal apéritif with something briny, like plump green olives or oysters.
The Alsace region is home to memorable wines and scenic towns such as Riquewihr
Photo by alwyngreer22/Flickr
Alsace
You’ve not seen a chocolate-box town until you’ve visited Alsace. In the shadow of the Vosges Mountains near the German border are France’s finest fairy-tale villages: Obernai, Ribeauvillé, Riquewihr, and Colmar—known for its Christmas market. Even the capital city, Strasbourg, has its share of half-timbered houses and sleepy canals. And while the Alsace Wine Route is far from unknown, it’s less crowded than that of the Loire Valley, for example.
Completing this storybook landscape are vineyards planted with some of France’s most aromatic white grapes: gewürztraminer, pinot blanc, pinot gris, and riesling. The latter holds the undisputed crown and tends to be used in dry and steely wines, although even those with a little sweetness still have enough acidity to get your pulse racing.
Harvest is one of the prettiest times to embark on the long-established wine route, which visitors often tackle by bike. When the vines start to be flecked with gold and amber, you know it’s time to gorge on the region’s quite hearty specialties like coq au riesling (chicken stew with white instead of red) and choucroute garnie (sauerkraut with sausages, charcuterie, and potatoes).
Where to stay:
In the village of Orbey, less than 30 minutes’ drive from Riquewihr, is one of the regions’s unique hotels: Le Domaine des Constellations, seven tiny houses where you can gaze up at the stars as you soak in your hot tub, glass of local white in hand.
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The perfect pairing: Try dry Riesling and tarte flambée (somewhere between a pizza and a savory tart, usually topped with crème fraîche, bacon, and onions).
The medieval village of Oingt in the Beaujolais region perches handsomely above the surrounding vineyards.
Photo by ldgfr photos/Shutterstock
Beaujolais
The third Thursday of November is a big day for Beaujolais, a wine region within Burgundy. Mere months after harvest, locals celebrate the release of the region’s youngest wines, Beaujolais nouveau. These bubblegum reds, made from gamay grapes, are meant to be drunk straight away, and drunk they are, with much popping of bottles in the streets of cities and towns throughout the region. Lyon, just south of Beaujolais, puts on a big to-do each year.
The region has 12 appellations (essentially certified wine-producing areas) producing reds, whites, and rosés. The reds and rosés are made from gamay—dark skinned with clear juice—and the whites predominantly from chardonnay.
Where to stay:
To taste plenty of Beaujolais wines without a car, stay in Lyon. The city is technically just outside the region, but its commitment to Beaujolais runs deep (see: the city’s raucous Beaujolais nouveau event). The riverfront Intercontinental Hotel Dieu is unabashedly Lyon’s swishest hotel and is well located for walking to the wine bars and restaurants where Beaujolais is poured.
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The perfect pairing: For a high-low pairing, go for a red Beaujolais with thick-cut fries and saffron mayo.
Saint-Florent is an appealing starting point for exploring Corsica’s northern wine region, Patrimonio.
Photo by Traveler 70/Shutterstock
Corsica
Rugged and independently minded Corsica, closer to Italy than France, tempts not only with wine but also beautiful beaches and serious hiking. Patrimonio is the pick of the island’s wine regions for first-timers, just inland from Saint-Florent, a ritzy harbor town in the north, and within easy reach of scrub-backed bays like Plage de Saleccia. Here you can stop by a handful of domaines to sample glasses of the mineral white vermentinu (elsewhere known vermentino or rolle) and robust reds and rosés made from nielluccio (likely to be a genetic match of Tuscan superstar sangiovese). Getting around Corsica can require a lot of driving on winding roads, so your best bet is to go easy on the tasting and buy a bottle to enjoy on the beach another day.
Where to stay:
With only nine suites, Aethos Corsica is an intimate hotel in the village of Oletta. The exterior is a pristine 17th-century Florentine palace, while the interior is bright and airy, the minimalist rooms giving views of the Mediterranean and surrounding mountains.
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The perfect pairing: Herbal Corsican rosés are perfect with soft goat cheeses and the ricotta-like local cheese, brocciu.
Pays Nantais
France produces far more light and zippy white wines than just sauvignon blanc. If you prefer a cool, crisp glass at the end of the day, head to the vineyards of the Pays Nantais, a sub-region of the Loire Valley. It surrounds the city of Nantes just inland from the center of France’s rugged Atlantic coast.
This is not a wine capital as you know it. Nantes is principally famous for two things: its large student population and the one-of-a-kind Machines de l’Île, a lovably dystopian collection of interactive machines housed in an old dockyard—including a rideable mechanical elephant the size of a small house.
By contrast, the wines of the Pays Nantais are restrained and traditional. This is the home of muscadet, made from the grape melon de bourgogne. At Nantes neo-bistro Sain, it’s even been used to flavor sausage. The wine’s best expression is muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine sur lie, which is aged for six months allowing the wine’s fresh and appley flavors to mellow and soften. It’s traditionally drunk with seafood, and you can find France’s best an hour’s drive away on the Breton coast.
Where to stay:
Billie Hotel‘s 49 rooms aren’t maximalist, but those who prefer a bit of color and pattern over an all-white space will do well here. Rooms sleep one, two, or three guests—just as much space as you need. Expect saffron-color ottomans and headboards and punchy, slightly 1970s wallpaper.
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The perfect pairing: Just-shucked oysters and muscadet are a match that can’t be beaten.
This article was originally published in 2018 and most recently updated on April 2, 2025, with current information. Eleanor Aldridge contributed to the reporting of this story.
