The Secrets to Buying Excellent French Wine Right Now PARIS - It's that time of year in France again - "la rentrée" or "the return." It's when people come back from the beach, don their fall fashions and go back to work or school. It's also the time of year when retailers ring up the bulk of their wine sales for the year. Most of the big French supermarket chains are gearing up for their annual wine fairs, some of which are getting under way this week. The idea has also been copied by smaller retailers and Internet wine merchants. A lot of what goes on is marketing, but amid the hype, there are some good deals, too. If you live in France or within driving distance and you're looking to replenish your cellar - or if you just enjoy the spectacle of grown men fighting over the last bottle of a certain Bordeaux grand cru in a supermarket aisle - it's worth dropping by one of these fairs. Here are a few tips: Where to shop The best wine fairs are those at the big out-of-town "hypermarkets," the ones that pioneered this kind of promotion. The fairs at smaller stores and Internet retailers are often stocked with the same wines that are sold year-round, generally at the same prices. Definitely avoid any so-called wine fair within the Paris city limits, for similar reasons. The best chains to look for are Carrefour (again, the big, suburban stores, not the in-town Carrefour Market convenience stores), Auchan and E. Leclerc. Other chains, like Intermarché, Super U and Casino, also have decent fairs. What to buy Basically, Bordeaux. The retailers advertise vast ranges of wines from virtually every region of France - and even, in some cases, other countries. It's best to skip most of these. I've scoured through thousands of wines on all of the retailers' fair lists that I could find - this is less fun than it might sound - and have been unable to find a single Burgundy of interest, for example. The problem is that the best wines of Burgundy are simply not made in large enough quantities to satisfy a big retailer's national distribution system, and most Burgundy vignerons don't need to sell their wines in grocery stores, anyway. Bordeaux is different. It makes huge amounts of wine, even at the high end. The wine fairs are a good way to unload some of it in a way that doesn't undermine higher prices in export markets. Know your vintages The wine fairs - the genuine ones, at least - are pretty much the first opportunity, anywhere, to buy a certain vintage of Bordeaux grands crus in the bottle, rather than via futures for later delivery. This year, the newest grand-cru releases are the 2010s. The good retailers all have sizable selections of 2010s, as well as some 2009s that went unsold last year. Both 2010 and 2009 were great vintages in Bordeaux, producing rich, ripe, delicious wines, but the profiles of the two years are slightly different. The 2009s are smoother and more opulent, the 2010s more structured and reserved. If you want to drink your wines soon, opt for the 2009s; if you're looking to cellar them, go for the 2010s. Know your prices It used to be that bargains abounded at the fairs. But Bordeaux prices have risen substantially in recent years, so any bargains are relative. Still, the prices of desirable vintages like 2010 and 2009 are sure to be lower during the wine fairs than a few years down the road when these wines make their way into specialist retailers. On some wines, the supermarkets even undercut the price of Bordeaux futures, which are offered more than a year earlier, by wine merchants, purportedly as a way to lock in the lowest prices. Know your chateaus Avoid the biggest names, which were subject to a speculative frenzy in both 2009 and 2010. In any case, relatively few of these wines are available in the fairs. Don't worry. There are plenty of other wines, nearly as good, at a fraction of the price, in these great vintages. While there are few screaming buys among the grands crus, 2009 Calon-Ségur, at less than 70 euros, or about $90; 2010 Gruaud-Larose, at less than 60 euros; 2010 Malartic-Lagravière, at less than 50 euros; 2009 and '10 Lafon-Rochet, at less than 40 euros; and 2010 La Tour Carnet and 2009 and '10 Cantemerle, at less than 30 euros, all look like decent choices. If you can settle for something less than a grand cru, wines from excellent Bordeaux chateaus like Belle-Vue, Clément-Pichon, Lanessan, La Dauphine and Poujeaux are widely available, sometimes in either vintage, for less than 20 euros. Don't fall for it Most retailers also offer volume discounts - buy two bottles for 5 euros, get one free, for example. The wines subject to these offers are usually awful - basically boxed wine that has been dressed up and bottled for the occasion. These are no bargains.