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
Mosel (wine region) the area's production and is often used as a low-cost riesling alternative in the production of sparkling Sekt. The Mosel is also well known for its Eiswein production with the area's characteristic high acidity coupled with the sweetness produced by the concentration of the sugars in the frozen grapes. The most cultivated grape varieties, by area in 2008, were: There are two major wine growers' associations in the Mosel region, the "Großer Ring", which is a regional section of the VDP, and the "Bernkasteler Ring". They both arrange annual wine auctions of top wines. Producers can submit their wines to