Press releases

• Send

The 2011 Hachette Wine Guide: The best-selling wine guide

The best-selling wine guide

The market's leading guide has achieved its position thanks to its independence, impartiality and unique selection - fully updated each year - of over 10,000 wines. For this 26th edition, all new producers are clearly identified to make sure readers are aware of the guide's latest discoveries. The 2011 edition also features a special supplement with descriptions of some 100 restaurants and wine bars throughout France.

It goes without saying that the Hachette Wine Guide is an all-new publication every year.

For each edition, we wipe the slate clean and start again, tasting 36,000 new wines from the latest bottled vintages until only the best remain.

Is this really so important?

It is absolutely essential. After all, is there really any relationship between a great 2009 vintage tasted more or less everywhere in France this year and its less-than-impressive predecessor, often modestly described as "delicate"? As for the 2007 vintage, those wines from among the great Bordeaux tasted for this edition reveal a "difficult" year, so it's much better to have a good guide handy to help you decide what to buy. In Alsace, however, 2007 produced some elegant late harvests, many of which are included in the guide.

Fair enough, but what else does the guide offer, apart from all these new wines?

• Great places to visit
  After last year's successful launch of the 2010 edition paired with a booklet covering great places to visit, this year we decided to include a special chapter on restaurants and wine bars throughout France in the guide itself.
• New discoveries
  The guide is an unparalleled source for discovering new talents thanks to the vast number of wines tasted (over 36,000 every year). It was time to clearly signpost the vintages from these new winemakers for guide readers.
• Digital developments
  Following the 2008 launch of the hachette-vins.com website, the guide has seen further digital developments in 2010 with a range of mobile applications, including one for the iPhone.

What's new in the 2011 Hachette Wine Guide:

A special "Restaurants and Wine Bars" chapter
A special new chapter lists over 100 great places to visit throughout France - not just in wine-growing areas - to help readers go a step further in learning more about wine. Find out what these places have on their wine lists, the kind of atmosphere they offer and their specialities, along with all the practical information you need, like contact details, hours of operation, prices and number of listings.

• New producers clearly signposted in the guide
  From ex-city executives seeking a change of direction and more natural way of life, to former cooperative members now making wine on their own, to outsiders who have fallen in love with France, lots of people are attracted to wine and winemaking every year and set themselves up as producers. The guide has been helping you discover them from the very beginning; now, for the first time, we're clearly signposting them so that you can be among the first to taste their wines!
• More digital developments
  Launched in September 2008, the Hachette-vins.com website now attracts 180,000 unique visitors every month and offers free access to guide selections, expert advice and a chance to share views with others on the forum. Building on this success, in 2010 the guide developed new applications for iPhone and Samsung mobile phones:
  - "Vins & Millésimes": all of France's appellations are described in detail, including maps to help locate them and ratings for vintages since 1945. This free app, which has already been downloaded almost 500,000 times, is also available in English (as "French Wines").
  - "Accords Mets & Vins": Some 2,000 suggestions for discerning gourmets on the best wines to serve with various foods plus tips from our sommelier. This is the No. 1 paid app in its category (AppStore figures, July 2010).
• And, as always, over 10,000 new wines selected via blind tastings
  All these new features notwithstanding, the real heart of the guide is still the all-new selection of over 10,000 wines, including more organic wines than ever before. These wines have been scored and commented upon by panels of experts from all regions and appellations in France, Switzerland and Luxembourg (see following page).

Bottles for all tastes and budgets

A simple, practical guide

From the great grand crus to simpler vins de pays, it's easy to find what you're looking for, with wines classified by region, appellation and name, plus coloured tabs, a table of maps and four indexes.

All of this information makes the guide a great way to find out about more than just wine - you'll learn about winegrowing areas as well.

 

The 2011 Hachette Wine Guide's gold, silver and bronze awards

The 2011 Hachette Wine Guide has been available in bookstores since Wednesday 1 September 2010. In 26 years, it has become the essential guide for wine lovers, who each autumn eagerly await the new selection of wines from our panels of experts, made via blind tastings during the year of publication. Objective and independent, the guide is aimed at all consumers and written in a user-friendly way. Of the 36,000 wines tasted, 10,069 made it into the guide, with 219 scoring three stars, 1,562 two stars and 3,356 one star. 471 wines were awarded "Coup de Coeur" ("Top Pick") status, with their labels reproduced in the guide.

At Paris' Pavillon Dauphine banquet hall, François Cluzet and Jean-Sébastien Petitdemange presented gold, silver and bronze awards during a tasting session of "Coup de Coeur" wines from the 2011 Hachette Wine Guide.

Gold award, three-star "Coup de Coeur" (exceptional wine):
Presented to Bernard Gros for the Grand Cru Richebourg Domaine Gros Frère et Soeur 2008
The descendant of a line of winemakers from Vosne-Romanée dating back to 1830, Bernard Gros has, since 1984, been running the estate created by his uncle and aunt following a division of family property. A noted ancestor, Louis-Gustave, was one of the first producers on the Côte to bottle his wine for direct sale to individuals. In 1882, he also bought about five acres of the Richebourg vineyard, the grand cru that adjoins La Romanée-Conti. Gros now manages a little less than two acres, from which he produced an intense, powerful wine in 2008 that won him a third "Coup de Coeur" award in four years for this appellation. His dark-ruby Richebourg opens with a notes of black fruit and smoke, and then reveals a round, full-bodied flavour with a tannic heart. This wine reflects the spirit of the estate's grands crus, two of which were also awarded a star this year (Grands-Echézeaux 2008 and Clos-de-Vougeot Musigni 2008).

Silver award, two-star "Coup de Coeur" (remarkable wine):
Presented to Jean-Marie Haag for the Alsace Grand Cru Zinnkoepflé Domaine Haag Cuvée Marie Gewurztraminer 2008
In charge of almost 15 acres of vines, Jean-Marie and Myriam Haag live in an 18th-century house in the heart of Soultzmatt, some 20 kilometres south of Colmar. Stretching along the "Vallée Noble" (Noble Valley), the village is dominated by the steep, sunny slopes of the grand cru Zinnkoepflé, the "rooftop" of the Alsace wine-growing area. Jean-Marie Haag has made more than the most of it, producing a 2008 vintage whose deep gold colour reflects its concentrated flavour. Close to being a late harvest, the wine has all the nuances of an over-matured Gewurztraminer (lychee, candied yellow fruit and spices) and lingers in the mouth thanks to its potency, richness and staying power. This is a great wine for such fine foods as pan-fried foie gras with spice bread, farmhouse Munster cheese or a plum and cinnamon tart. As further evidence of his mastery of this grape variety, Haag also won a "Coup de Coeur" award for his 2007 late-harvest Alsace Gewurztraminer.

Bronze award, "Coup de Coeur" priced at less than 8 euros:
Presented to Régis Neau for the Saumur-Champigny Domaine de Nerleux Clos des Châtains Vieilles Vignes 2008
Régis Neau is a member of the eighth winegrowing generation at Domaine de Nerleux, a 16th-century seigneury whose name means "black wolves" in Old French. Le Clos des Châtains, on the southwestern slopes of the steep-sided Saint-Cyr ridge, is home to the oldest vine stocks (70 years old) on the property, which extends for over 100 acres. These old vines produced the third "Coup de Coeur" awarded to one of the Saumur region's greatest estates: a dark-red 2008 with a hint of blackberry jam, a full body and the elegance of intense yet delicate fruit. Equally confident in handling both Chenin and Cabernet Franc, Neau only narrowly missed a "Coup de Coeur" award for his white Saumur Les Loups Blancs 2008, which won two stars.