Bordeaux is actually a very big wine region. It is today around 110,000 hectares of vines. This is about the same as half of California’s total wine vineyards acreage. So it is nor surprising that there are great differences in wine styles.
The main watershed between wine styles is, of course, the river, or more precisely, the two rivers Dordogne and Garonne. We talk about the Right Bank and the Left Bank, as expressed along the flow of the rivers.
The Right Bank has Saint Emilion, Pomerol, Fronsac and a few more regions. It is dominated by merlot often with a good dose of cabernet franc. The soil is limestone or clay, the climate is cooler. The wines have lots of fruit, are elegant, with a ripe -fruit character.
On the Left Bank you have Medoc, Graves (with Pessac-Léognan), Sauternes and some more. Here, it is cabernet sauvignon that dominates, with additions of several other grapes. The wines are more “structured”, with more tannins, more pronounced oak and tobacco. The soil is often gravelly. It’s closer to the Atlantic.
This is one of the many finer points of Bordeaux wines that you will get to know on our wine tour.
Join us for a fabulous Bordeaux wine tour.
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- Bordeaux,
October 1-5, 2023Dates for 2024 coming soon
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PS: We have written a book about Bordeaux, and have been travelling there since 1986. Can you find a better guide and tour operator?
