History of French wine of Aquitaine and the future King Henry II of England brought a large portion of southwest France under English rule. When Henry's son John inherited the English crown, he sought to curry favor among the Gascons by bestowing upon them many privileges-the most notable of which was an exemption among Bordeaux merchants from the Grand Coutume export tax. With this exemption and favored treatment in London, Bordeaux wine became the cheapest wine in the London market and gained immense popularity among the English, who call it claret. For over the next 300 years much of Gascony, particular Bordeaux, benefited by
Saxony (wine region) Wachau wine region. The Müller-Thurgau grape is the leading planting of the area at and 18.4% (2008 figures) followed by Riesling at 14.5% and Weissburgunder (Pinot blanc) at 11.9%. The majority of the wine production, around 90%, is in dry wine. The most cultivated grape varieties, by area in 2008, were: Saxony (wine region) Saxony ("Sachsen") is a region for quality wine in Germany located in the German federal state of Saxony. The region is sometimes referred to colloquially as "the Elbtal" (Elbe valley). The wine region covers , which makes it Germany's third smallest region, just ahead of Mittelrhein