Bordeaux

Vines arrived in the first century AD, when the Bituriges Vivisques of Roman Burdigala took up winegrowing; excavations in the Graves date the first plantings to around 40 AD. The real expansion came in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine to Henry Plantagenet, future king of England, in 1152 opened the English market, which called the pale wine "claret". In the seventeenth century Dutch merchants and engineers helped drain the Médoc marshes and widened demand for white wines. Ageing in barrel and then bottle, helped by burning sulphur wicks, spread from about 1750, and Merlot began to spread only from about 1830.

The brokers' habit of ranking parishes and then estates led to the 1855 classification for the Paris Universal Exhibition. Phylloxera struck from 1875 to 1892, and Bordeaux mixture, a copper spray against mildew, came out of work by Millardet and Gayon published in 1887. A decree of 18 February 1911 first delimited Bordeaux, and the AOC followed on 14 November 1936. The frosts of the winter of 1956 forced a deep replanting.

The Garonne flows in from the south-east and the Dordogne from the east; they meet at the Bec d'Ambès to form the Gironde estuary. The specification uses these waters to divide the region into three units: Nord-Gironde on the right bank of the Dordogne and the estuary, the land between the two rivers (Entre-deux-Mers), and the left bank of the Garonne and the estuary. The rocks are young: Eocene and Oligocene marls, molasses and limestones, covered by Plio-Quaternary gravel and sand, often under silt. Brown clay-limestone soils dominate on the Tertiary rock, well-drained gravel terraces line the rivers, and clay-rich palus lies along their banks.

The Atlantic, the estuary and the valleys moderate temperatures, but their protection against spring frost fades towards the forests of the Landes, Saintonge and the Double, so few vines grow at the northern and south-western ends. The specification gives 700–800 mm of rain a year, spread through the year. Météo-France's 1991–2020 normals at Bordeaux-Mérignac give 925 mm, a mean of 14.2 °C and about 2,070 hours of sunshine. Variable late-summer weather gives strong vintage differences.

The specification links grape to ground through four soil types: clay-limestone and marly slopes, where Merlot does well; siliceous soils mixed with clay and limestone, suited to Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc; light boulbènes of fine silt, suited to dry whites; and warm, well-drained gravel terraces, ideal for Cabernet Sauvignon. It describes reds in which Merlot often leads as supple, fruity and low in acidity, with Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc adding aromatic complexity and the tannic power to keep and develop a bouquet. Dry whites from Sauvignon Blanc are aromatic and fresh, with floral and citrus notes; Sémillon adds body. Clairet has an intense colour with raspberry glints and a more vinous palate than other rosés.

Bordeaux wines are usually blends. In 2020 red varieties made up 89 % of the vineyard: Merlot 66 %, Cabernet Sauvignon 22 %, Cabernet Franc 9 %, and small amounts of Malbec (Côt), Petit Verdot and Carménère. The white 11 % was mainly Sémillon and Sauvignon, with Muscadelle. Several appellations now also admit a few "varieties of interest for adaptation" to climate change, such as Arinarnoa, Castets, Marselan and Touriga Nacional, capped at 5 % of each estate in the Haut-Médoc.

The appellations form a pyramid. At the base, Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur made 44 % of the volume in the 2021 key figures of the Bordeaux wine council (CIVB). Above them come district appellations such as Médoc and Graves, and then communal ones such as Pauillac or Pomerol. The CIVB counted 65 AOCs in 2021.

Classifications of estates sit beside the appellations. The 1855 classification, drawn up by the Bordeaux brokers at the request of Napoleon III and published on 18 April 1855, ranked 61 red wines in five classes, mostly from the Médoc plus Haut-Brion, and 27 sweet wines of Sauternes and Barsac. Its only two official changes are the addition of Cantemerle in September 1855 and the promotion of Mouton Rothschild in 1973. Later came the Graves classification (1959) and the Saint-Émilion classification, first made in 1955. Pomerol has never had one.