The key to understanding French wines is to familiarize yourself with the major wine-making districts, vinyards and estates.
Bordeaux, for example is a provence in the South-West of France. Medoc is a major vinyard area in Bordeaux. And Chateau Lafite a well-known estate in the Medoc region:
We may therefore consider Chateau Lafite to be a particularly fine "brand" of the Medoc variety of Bordeaux wine.
The French wine-making districts we shall examine are:
Burgundy
Bordeaux
Rhone
Loire
Alsase
Champagne
In each section you will find a description of the wines, an explanation on which foods they best accompany, and a summary of the producing regions and estates.
Other districts worth investigating on your own are Cahors, Midi, Provence and Jura.