I’ll apologise now to all the die hard French Red Wine drinkers. Can anyone recommend a soft fruity red ( shiraz or merlot) which isn’t loaded with oak tannins? I love Ozzy Red Wine having lived there for 6 years and sadly the French red I’ve purchased so far have been tipped down the drain. Come the warmer months the red will be off the shopping list, but for now…log burner, chilly and raining, I wish for an easy drinking glass of red
Hi Jilly.
Look out for next Thursday and the release of the current vintage Beaujolais Nouveau.
The winery in Chasseneuil - « La Bonnieure » at the bottom end of the town past the bakery (on the same side, not the restaurant by the same name opposite) - usually has a tasting session with a few nibbles.
I would try Côtes-du-Rhône, Jilly.
And hang what anyone else thinks! There’s no point in drinking to impress.
Also I would recommend, because we like it - though it’s not really anything like the wines you say you like - a decent Saumur Champigny.
Thank you. Great tip.
Super. Thank you so much.
I second that you try a Loire red from the Saumur area.
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And I third it, even tho’ cabernet sauvignon is a bit tannin’y. Otherwise look for wines made with Pinot Noir or Gamay grapes that are 13%
I don’t know which part of France you’re in, but I find the basic AOC red wine of Marcillac (Aveyron) far more gluggable than the Loire wines (I appreciate the firmness of Loire Cabernet Franc - but for me that’s a more ‘formally structured’ wine).
Marcillac is more like Beaujolais, but uses 100% mansois (also known in the SW as fer servadou), It’s a tiny region whose vineyards are amongst the most beautiful and though its wines are unlikely ever to compare with les grandes marques, they’re great everyday value. The basic AOC Marcillac from the co-op at St Christophe is 33 euros for 10 litres!
By contrast, I find neighbouring appellations such as Gaillac and Cahors more difficult to learn because they are much larger, and the quality is far more varied.
Lastly, I’d love to learn other posters’ experiences of getting to know and understand their local wines…
Can you please add your surname as per our T&C. Thanks
Jilly Bond
Oops. Thanks Graham Norton 
We lived in the Gaillac AOC area for a number of years. I had never heard of it until we moved there. I have only ever once see a bottle on a wine list in the UK. I think it suffers a bit from not having signature wines. There isn’t a wine type you can’t get - sparkling, brut and demi-sec, liquoreux, dry white and red, and even a pétillant, the Perlé. There aren’t many great wines, if any, but there are some high quality ones such as from Domaine Rotier at Cadalen. I have drunk Marcillac, but it hasn’t left any lasting impressions!
I live in the Creuse, we don’t have any wine…
I do like red, is there any other type?
My husband was just like you when we came to live n France.
He has changed his drinking preferences.
We live 30 minutes north of the Beaujolais and I would recommend a Moulin a Vent or Chenas.
Of course, it would all depend on how much you want to pay per bottle.
You don’t say where you live, are you in a red wine area?
The Rhone wines are excellent, Vacqueyras for example is not too expensive.
Do you have a co-operative near to where you live? If so, try their wines.
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That is good advice, co-ops are well known for blending their wines from various vineyards, but sometimes they come up with ( to quote @DrMarkH) some very “gluggable” wine. 
I was particularly taken with a Pay d’Oc Cab Sauv which was much fruitier and ‘softer’ than most Cab Sauvs. I’m pretty sure I got it in Leclerc where I did do a shop before continuing to Calais next day.
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Thanks for your recommendation, certainly I’d like to find good Gaillac and I’m sure it exists if only because I had a conversation recently with a Toronto lawyer who also has a house in the Lot and he told me that he was currently drinking his twenty year old Gaillacs.
However, within the context of this thread, there are two problems:-
i) Gaillac is very large and as you note, so broad that it has few definitive characteristics (unlike neighbouring Cahors, or indeed Marcillac, where at least everyone’s agreed on which grape to use!)
ii) The original post was about easy drinking reds and whereas ordinary Marcillac fits the bill, within my experience, the cheaper Gaillacs not only become tiresome , but their generally lower production standards (and often higher alcohol content) don’t bode well for the following morning.
I’d suggest that if Marcillac ’ hasn’t left any lasting impressions! ’ it’s because it’s not great, but on the other hand, it’s also very gluggable, and that of course, was the basis of the query in the original post.
When I visit the UK I always make a point of enjoying world wines that I cannot buy in France or at least not easily. Most are available by post but at a price and Marks and Spencer in Paris has a limited range of wines from around the world including New Zealand and Australia.
When Mum and Dad visit, they fill up their motorhome with wine to take back to the UK for their friends who put in their “orders”. A lot of them seem to be wanting Rosé ?