Wasn't there a huge grape blight 100+ years ago that caused them to import vines from California?
Apparently Bordeaux is at the same latitude as Napa, and Rhone at the same latitude as Paso Robles. And hence Napa is Cab country while Paso loves their GSM blends...
Their vines were heavily hit by phylloxera in the late 1800s. They managed by using root stock of vines from the US, not the entire vines, just the root stocks. Vines are generally grafted onto roots. They don't like talking about this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_French_Wine_Blight
Napa is at the same latitude as Rome/Spain and a fair bit south of Bordeaux. Whether an area is good for cab depends on much more than latitude of course. In Sonoma county for example, the Russian River valley is good for pinot/chardonnay, and 10 miles away in Alexander Valley it is good for cab and Rhone varietals. The Rhone valley area is quite long but quite a bit north of Paso. The broad term for where a certain varietal may be good is "terroir", which is a combination of soil, altitude, sun exposure, and latitude. Soils that are4 gravely and drain well tend to be preferred, like the subregion called Graves in Bordeaux.
Oddly, the expensive wines Petrus and Cheval Blanc in Bordeaux are in clay dominant areas. Chablis is on a limestone outcropping (Kimmerridgian). Champagne is the northern most major wine growing region and the vines are planted on south facing slopes to get as much direct sun as possible. Their still wines reputedly are not very good which is why they nearly always are "carbonated" by a specific method.
The main wine regions of France are Bordeaux, Burgundy (which includes Chablis and Beaujolais), the Rhone valley, and Champagne. If you know those, you are in good shape. Bordeaux corresponds loosely to Napa and Burgundy with Sonoma (in parts) and Oregon, you need cooler weather at night for pinot noir and chardonnay.
Champagne is nearly always chardonnay, with at times pinot noir and pinot meunier, blanc de noir would have only the latter two and is still white wine.
