Bordeaux wines, a travel through myth and legend (2)

If you are not yet fully inside in this world, if your wine passion  has not yet reached the point of no return, hearing about Bordeaux will send you back to a certainly important wine, but at the same time you will have an idea very generic and in some ways blurred.

As often happens with the more rated denominations, even for Bordeaux - at least until you get to know it well – it’s easy to understand it as an identity wine, with characteristics that are always the same and repeatable regardless the place where it’s made.

In reality, things are quite different.

Ok, Bordeaux is not Burgundy – the terroir of wine heterogeneity, in which enormous differences can be found between wines produced a few hundred meters away – but even here there are important differences between the various areas that make up this great and prestigious wine region.

Starting with the most immediate and evident subdivision, that separates the wines produced on the left bank of the Garonne (the Rive Gauche) from those coming from the right bank of the river (the Rive Droit).

In the first case the soils are looser and more gravelly and the dominant grape is usually the Cabernet Sauvignon - the king of the Bordeaux vines, capable of providing structure and longevity - while on the other hand the soils are more compact and clayey and the prince is undoubtedly Merlot, smoother and more aromatic.

But this division, although significant, is not enough to describe the diversity and the various souls that make up this mythical wine territory.

In fact, within each sub-area there are numerous appellations, which - beyond a different geographical location - express in the bottle peculiar and recognizable characters.

For this reason, I have chosen to complete my ideal trip within this historic wine region talking about my five favorite appellations, the ones that in my opinion best express the potential of this wonderful and unique terroir.

The intention is not to create a personal ranking, even if in fact it cannot not be. Enjoy the reading!

 

1.Margaux

The paradigm of Bordeaux blend, the “non plus ultra” of its harmony and elegance.

Located on the Left Bank, it is the southernmost appellation of the Medoc, it has an overall extension of about 1400 hectares and in addition to the municipality from which it takes its name it also incorporates the villages of Cantenac, Arsac, Soussans and Labarde.

Here Cabernet Sauvignon is undoubtedly the predominant grape variety, but Merlot - unlike what happens for other Medoc appellations - has a good importance and weight into the blend.

It owes its fame mainly to the homonymous wine produced within its municipal territory (Chateau Margaux) but offers a lot of other labels of excellent level, aspect witnessed by having twenty-one Grand Cru Classè, more than any other Medoc appellation.

From a geological aspect, it has one of the thinnest soil in the entire region, consisting of a layer of pebble gravel, on top of a subsoil still interstratified with limestone.

A peculariar characteristic of this appellation is to add a small quantity of the so-called “vin de presse” (that is the dark and tannic wine of the last pressing), a process that allows to obtain full-bodied but also very long-lived wines, featured by aging skills of a lot of decades.

Wines of absolute value, powerful but also very elegant, with exceptionally ample aromas and a fruity imprint that recalls - depending on the origin or vintage - black currant or plum.

 

2. Pauillac

The sublimation of Cabernet Sauvignon, the land where this great vine reaches its peak, showing the world its unrivaled greatness.

An appellation of great charm and tradition - for many insiders the most prestigious – which it extends for about 1200 hectares and is divided into two extensive plateaus respectively to the north-west and south-west of the homonymous city, with mainly gravelly and stony soils.

Within its territory there are no less than eighteen Grand Cru Classè, but above all it’s the home of three of the five Premier Crus (Lafite, Latour and Mouton-Rotschild), essentially the top of the qualitative pyramid of wines from the Left Bank.

It expresses deep, dark and powerful wines, rich in alcohol and with powerful tannins, but at the same time featured by great finesse and with longevity skills absolutely out of the ordinary.

Undoubtedly high prices, but still in line with the great average quality that the wines of this appellation can offer.

If you are looking for a strong and vigorous “masculine” Bordeaux, you’ll surely love this appellation.

 

3.Pomerol

One of the smallest appellations of the Bordeaux area (just over 800 hectares of vineyards), but at the same time one of the best known ever, with a prestige that has grown more and more in recent decades.

Located on the Rive Droit, it is featured by alluvial soils rich in iron sands, which give the wines of this area a decidedly particular character and olfactory bouquet (in which the note of truffles generally stands out).

It is home to some of the greatest Merlots in the world, soft and powerful wines, persuasive and long-lived, but it binds its name - and in some ways it owes its boundless fame - to one of the greatest wines on the planet, a myth without time and without borders produced within its territory: Petrus.

A wine so great that it does not use the prefix "Chateau", which accompanies almost all the Grand Vins made by the various winery in the Bordeaux region.

Very high average quality of wines, but at the same time very high prices, perhaps even a little too much.

But when you have a wine produced a few kilometers away from your vineyards (if not hundreds of meters) capable of reaching incredible values, keeping prices low is very difficult.

 

4.Pessac-Leognan

The most important and well-known appellation of the Graves (the southernmost part of the Rive Gauche), as well as probably the one with the best value for money in the entire Bordeaux area.

It occupies a total area of ​​about 1600 hectares and extends over 10 municipalities, taking its name from the two most important and prestigious municipalities that compose it.

It is featured by extremely gravelly soils, and has two characteristics able to differentiating it from the more famous appellations of the Medoc and Libournais.

The first is that inside, as well as great red wines, excellent white wines are also produced (based on Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon), great finesse labels and with unusual aging skills.

The second is that in this appellation - as generally happens into the Graves - Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon are essentially equal into the blend, giving to the wines great harmony and balance.

Pessac municipality is the home of one between the most famous and historic Chateau of the region, the only one outside the Medoc region to have been classified as Premier Cru Classè: Chateau Haut-Brion.

But beyond this real monument, there are many wines that - over the years - are demonstrating a very high level of quality, increasing the prestige of this terroir, especially among insiders looking for excellent wines also considering price/quality ratio.

 

5.Saint-Emilion

Undoubtedly the most important appellation of Libournais, for overall quality as well as for absolute numbers, as well as being one of the Bordeaux appellations with the greatest history and tradition.

It occupies a total area of ​​about 5300 hectares and is in fact the largest "municipal" AOC in the region, extending around nine municipalities (including the beautiful town from which it takes its name) and producing - alone - about 6% of Bordeaux wines.

The soils are essentially clayey and calcareous in the so-called "historical" area - close to the town of Saint-Emilion – they become a mix of clay/sand/gravel in the part bordering the town of Pomerol while they are predominantly sandy in the plateau.

The wines are generally very balanced and elegant with velvety tannins, floral bouquet and remarkable longevity, but in recent years they are increasingly characterized by structure and spicy notes.

It is undoubtedly one of the elective world homelands of Merlot (which alone covers about 60% of the production), but which however - unlike what happens in the other AOC of the Bordeaux area, is often accompanied by Cabernet Franc which, in some cases, it is even the prevailing vine.

Its importance is also testified by the creation (in a first version in 1878 and in its current form in 1955) of a hierarchical classification of the quality of its wines, which unlike the one used for the Medoc, it is subject to revision every ten years.

At the top of the pyramid there are the so-called Premier Grand Cru Classè, of which only four (Chateau Angelus, Chateau Ausone, Chateau Cheval Blanc and Chateau Pavie) are classified as "category A", representing the best expressions of this appellation, as well as of the authentic myths of world enology.