Bordeaux

Contents

  1. Bordeaux: France’s Largest Vineyard
  2. The Bordeaux Climate
  3. The Grapes of Bordeaux
  4. The Modern AOP System in Bordeaux
  5. History of Bordeaux
  6. The Birth of Modern Bordeaux
  7. The 1855 Classification
  8. The Place de Bordeaux and En Primeur
  9. Bordeaux Vineyard Ownership: The Brand Model
  10. Viticulture and Winemaking Practices in Bordeaux
  11. Winegrowing Regions of Bordeaux

Bordeaux: France’s Largest Vineyard

With 117,500 hectares under vine in 2011, Bordeaux has more acreage under vine than any other region in France. Bordeaux constitutes 14% of France’s total vineyard area and typically produces five-to-six million hectoliters of wine each year. With an average Bordeaux domaine holding 14.5 hectares, more than 8,000 winegrowers are plying their trade. From its northernmost vineyards around the town of Saint-Vivien-de-Médoc to the southern edge of Graves, the region of Bordeaux spans over 130 km. At its widest point it extends over 75 km. It includes two major rivers, the Garonne and Dordogne, which converge into the Gironde Estuary before flowing into the Atlantic Ocean. On paper, most land within the Gironde département, save for a band of coastal forest, falls within the basic Bordeaux appellation. The vast area is divided into the following subregions, each with its own set of appellations:
  • Médoc
  • Graves
  • Entre-Deux-Mers
  • The right bank
  • Blaye and Bourg
On the western banks of the Gironde Estuary and Garonne River, the Médoc and Graves make up the “left bank” of Bordeaux. The “right bank” is a more compact set of wine-producing communes on the opposite bank of the Dordogne River—Saint-Émilion, Pomerol, Fronsac, and surrounding appellations. Blaye and Bourg, sometimes considered part of the right bank, are actually on the eastern bank of the Gironde, opposite the Médoc vineyards. Entre-Deux-Mers is the vast stretch of land between the Garonne and the Dordogne.

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The Bordeaux

Anonymous
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  • Quick question: it states that Y by D’Yquem has been sold under the Bordeaux Supérieur AOP occasionally, however white wines in this AOP are medium/sweet. Has this AOP allowed dry white wines in the past? 

  • Hey Chris! Great question. From 1959-2002 Y d'Yquem was labelled as  Bordeaux Supérieur AOP. Since 2004 it has been under the Bordeaux AOP level. That being said, producing a dry wine under the AOP is possible as the requirement for 17 g/l RS is "fermentable" sugar. Therefore it is possible to hit the requirement and then ferment to dry. 

  • Hmmm, I do not concur with that assessment. The section ‘Informations sur la qualité et les caractéristiques du produit’ in the Cahier des Charges’ indicates to me that these wines are bottled with unfermented (but fermentable) sugars leaving a residual sweetness in the wine ('Les vins blancs avec sucres fermentescibles'). With regards to the must weight minimum, the section on ‘2°- Maturité du raisin’ indicates that to be 195 g/l, of which 17 g/l must be left unfermented. The CIVB also markets whites labeled as Bordeaux Supérieur AOP as ‘sweet whites’ (see here). With regards to the original query, I believe what actually changed was the style of the Ygrec itself–historically it would have been a white wine with sweetness and labeled as Bordeaux Supérieur, but the style evolved toward an intentional wine fermented to dryness and hence the shift in labeling from Bordeaux Supérieur to Bordeaux AOP. Alas, I still see recent vintages of Ygrec listed as Bordeaux Supérieur on some rather prominent wine lists even though that is not how it is labeled on the bottle and it does not taste as one would expect a white labeled Bordeaux Supérieur to taste.

  • Hey Keith! We have reached out to the Chateau. A definitive answer will be here shortly. 

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  • Hey Keith! We have reached out to the Chateau. A definitive answer will be here shortly. 

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