In-/Famous Chateau's in France?

Your question is rather ambiguous hence the mixed responses. If you explained your intentions in more detail it would simplify things.You may also have not understood how French wines are designated.

Are you trying to buy wine from the USA or do you propose to come to France and buy wine there?

If the former, you can actually buy good French wine from France in the USA from specialist wine merchants that often are even cheaper than Californian wines. The alternative is to buy it on the net and get it shipped from France.

The term Chateau can designate a castle or an ordinary vineyard.

If you propose to come to France Gabriel has provided you with great chateau names in the Bordeaux region.

If you go to a city like Macon or Beaune in Burgundy you will be able to buy a variety of wines from that region. Wines there tend to be labelled "Clos" rather than Chateau. The term Chateau or Clos designates a domain where the grapes are grown.

http://www.terroir-france.com/region/burgundy_clos...

For Champagne, Rheims is the town that offers various famous retailers as well as less well known brands.

As stated above the term "chateau" does not necessarily mean that wine is made there. The historical chateaux in the Loire valley such as Azay-le-Rideau, Amboise, Chambord, Chenonceau , Cherverny, etc...do not make wine. Loire valley wines are pleasant but generally not great wines as such, except for Chinon, Pouilly-fuissé, and Pouilly fumé.

Alsace wines do not call themselves chateau wines.

There are a few chateau wines in Provence the most well known being Chateau-Neuf-du-Pape.

Your best bet is to go to a bookshop and get a specialist guide book of wine regions that gives you the best wines made for each year as well, or order it on the net, then plan your travel around the regions that interest you.

As you suggested there are some very drinkable wines that are a local speciality but are not as famous as the big names and they can be bought in any supermarket or wine merchant in that specific area.

I should also say that you do not need to go to a special region to buy cases of excellent wines. Brits cross the Channel to Calais and fill vans with good wines they have bought at local hypermarkets as they offer several huge alleys of good selections many of which have won medals that particular year.

If what you wanted was just a list of French castles, there are thousands of them all over France:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_castles_in_Fr...

Versailles is actually a royal palace in Paris suburbia, not a wine producing area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau

Do add to your initial question if any of this is not clear.

Ah - a very good question! Hope the next helps. Most visited (by means of numbers) are Chenonceau,Chambord,Blois and Amboise. Ancient value? Chinon used to be the place the King of England, Henry II Plantagenet,dominated from when that part of France was under English rule, so you even have the Rihcard the' Lionhear't connection. Additionally it is the place the longer term King Charles VII sought refuge for the period of the Hundred years warfare and where Joan of Arc had the historic meeting with him. Amboise is where in the late fifteenth century, following his marriage to Anne of Brittany at Langeais, Charles VIII made up our minds to live turning the historical fortress of his childhood days into a luxurious palace however,no longer lengthy after the work was completed, Charles met his death here – not within the defence of his kingdom – however by means of banging his head on some of the many low doorways! It was once additionally favoured by Francois I who invited Leonardo da Vinci to spend his last days here. Blois grew to become a royal house and the political capital of the dominion beneath Louis XII.

Robert's answer is ridiculous. If you are looking for good chateaux wines to buy you wont find them in the Loire valley. There are vineyards in the Loire owned by ordinary growers who produce light wines (mostly rosé or white) and are in no way linked to any of the historical chateaux that one visits in the region , nor is there any wine sold or grapes grown in Versailles which is an ex- royal palace now in a Paris suburb. The Alsace wines near Strasbourg are not chateau wines either.

A "Château" wine is not necessarily linked to a castle, it can be an ordinary vineyard and some very best wines don't always have "Château" part of their name.

There are hundreds of them and no less than 7000 red wines just in the Bordeaux region, so it would be impossible to list them all on here. Bordeaux is primarily a red wine region, famous for the wines Château Lafite-Rothschild, Château Latour, Château Mouton-Rothschild, Château Margaux and Château Haut-Brion from the Médoc sub-region; Château Cheval Blanc and Château Ausone in Saint-Émilion; and Château Pétrus and Château Le Pin in Pomerol. The red wines produced are usually blended, from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and sometimes Cabernet Franc. Bordeaux also makes dry and sweet white wines, including some of the world's most famous sweet wines from the Sauternes appellation, such as Château d'Yquem.

Likewise there are some very famous Châteaux wines in Burgundy, and in otter regions.

http://burgundy-wine.com/

http://www.chateauxwines.co.uk/index.html

Have a look at these websites for others.

http://www.lesannuaires.com/annuaire-vin-vignobles...

http://www.vinup.fr/producteur.lasso?recherche=pro...

http://www.wineweb.com/

http://www.chateauxwines.co.uk/

http://www.wine-searcher.com/regions-france

Visit les Châteaux de la Loire and Versailles of course. And plenty of excellent wine areas around Strasbourg.