📍 Bordeaux

Bordeaux is one of the most famous wine areas in the world, in south-western France. It spreads around the city of Bordeaux along the Garonne and Dordogne rivers and their shared estuary, the Gironde. The vineyard area in the Gironde department is about 110,000 hectares, and the region has 65 appellations.

Most of the wine is red, which the English call "claret". The region also makes sweet whites (Sauternes is the best known), dry whites, a little rosé and sparkling wine, Crémant de Bordeaux. Reds are mostly made from Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, whites from Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc; Petit Verdot, Malbec, Carménère and Muscadelle are also permitted.

The region is divided into parts. On the left bank are Médoc and Graves, on the right bank the Libourne area, and between the Garonne and the Dordogne lies Entre-Deux-Mers. Blaye and Bourg sit on the right bank of the Gironde opposite Médoc. In 1855 the châteaux of Médoc and Sauternes were classified, and that system is still used today.

The soils are gravel, sand and clay; the best vineyards lie on well-drained gravel near the Gironde. The broader appellations of the region are Bordeaux, Bordeaux Supérieur, Côtes de Bordeaux and Sainte-Foy-Bordeaux.