Bordeaux

Bordeaux - Red
It is easy to forget just how extensive the Bordeaux wine region is: until a few years ago it made more wine than the whole of Australia, and it is still responsible for around one in every eight bottles of wine made in France. Red wine from Bordeaux is known in the UK as claret and while around half is simple Appellation Bordeaux Controlée the best examples are keenly sought-after by connoisseurs and collectors and are undoubtedly among the world's finest wines.

Basic Bordeaux AOC wines can come from anywhere in the Gironde Départment in southwest France. They are designed for drinking young and are usually not very expensive. The reds tend to be mainly Merlot, blended with a little bit of Cabernet Sauvignon. Some properties may also add a little Cabernet Franc or Petit Verdot.

The highest quality clarets come from the 'left bank' (the Haut-Médoc and Graves) or the 'right bank' (St-Emilion and Pomerol).

The Left Bank is Cabernet country, and here you'll find the majority of Bordeaux's most famous chateaux. In the Haut-Médoc, north of Bordeaux town, you have the wine communes of Margaux, St.-Julien and Pauillac and St.-Estephe. Further inland from the Gironde estuary are Moulis and Listrac, which are less well known but great hunting ground for value.

Each has its own style, but characteristics common to all left bank clarets are concentrated blackcurrant fruit, subtle, savoury aromas of cedar, vanilla and graphite. The very best exhibit a complexity and persistence of flavour rarely if ever equalled elsewhere.

The famous 1855 classification of the Médoc was an attempt to categorise châteaux according to quality. It listed the 61 priciest châteaux (the crus classés) in ranks from 1st to 5th growth. Châteaux Margaux, Latour, Lafite-Rothschild and Haut Brion (actually in the Graves district further south) were the original 1st Growths while Mouton-Rothschild was only added in 1973, by presidential decree.

One step below the crus classés are the crus bourgeois wines among which it is possible to find exceptional quality and value for money.

South of the town of Bordeaux is the older Graves area, with its high quality enclave of Pessac-Leognan. This is home to the Graves' only 1st Growth, Château Haut-Brion. The reds from this region have a slightly softer, spicier, earthier edge, but are often just as impressive as their Médoc cousins.

Bordeaux - White
The vast majority of white Bordeaux comes from the Entre-Deux-Mers region between the Garonne and Dordogne rivers. Today it is mostly a combination of Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon though until as recently as the 1990s, Ugni Blanc dominated the cheaper blends. Some of it is brilliant value, a genuine reflection of the style of the top estates, but without the price tag. We think we're very good at finding these bargains, which less specialist wine merchants tend to miss out on.

The Graves appellation south of the town of Bordeaux makes outstanding dry whites, with green-apple fruit and a bewitching, slightly honeyed finish. Many of these are fermented and aged in oak barrels.

Finally, further south on the left bank we have Sauternes, home of the world's most prestigious sweet wines: unctuously rich but somehow fresh at the same time, with layers of citrus and stone fruit, honey, nuts. These wines are made from various combinations of Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc often with a little Muscadelle.

The key to Sauternes' incredible sweetness and concentrated flavours is a benevolent grape fungus called Botrytis Cinerea (also known as 'noble rot'). It only appears on the skin of the grapes in ideal conditions in Autumn - so is not guaranteed every year. It causes the grapes to shrivel, concentrating the grape sugars and aromatic components in the process.

Château d'Yquem is the most celebrated wine of the appellation. But rest assured, there are many outstanding wines available at far more affordable prices!