If there’s one thing I’m missing right now, it’s going on vacation again. One of the trips on my wish list is Bordeaux. I love the city, beautiful scenery and of course the vineyards. I have really great memories of visiting small winegrowers and driving through the narrow roads along the vineyards by car. Can’t wait to go back and taste my favorite wines.
Bordeaux wine
The French wine from Bordeaux is world famous. Wine is produced in almost the entire department of Gironde, which includes Bordeaux. We quickly think of red wine with Bordeaux and that is not surprising. Every good restaurant, anywhere in the world, has a bottle of red Bordeaux on the menu. You can find a bottle of bordeaux in all price categories – from a simple house wine to a super chic bottle of a few thousand (!) Euros. Visiting the area is therefore definitely worth it, but for now you can of course also buy a fine Bordeaux wine online.
Did you know?
The Bordeaux wine region is roughly divided into the Left and Right Banks, meaning the left bank of the Gironde and Garonne. There we find the vineyards of the Médoc, Haut-Médoc, Graves and Pessac-Léognan. On the other side, on the right bank, we find Pomerol and Saint-Émilion. Between the Garonne and the Dordogne lies the sub-region of Entre-Deux-Mers. Cabernet Sauvignon thrives on the Left Bank, thanks to the siliceous soils that are warm and well drained. The calcareous and clayey soils of the Right Bank are better for Merlot. Wines from the Right Bank, with a larger proportion of Merlot in the blend, are therefore often softer and more mature in taste than Cabernet Sauvignon dominated wines.
Red, white and sweet
More than eighty percent of the grape varieties planted in the vineyards are for red wine, but excellent dry whites and sweet white dessert wines are also made in Bordeaux. The fame of this French wine region is mainly based on red wine, but there are also a few producers who have achieved world fame with their white wine. For example, a number of exceptionally good white wines come from Pessac-Léognan and Sauternes and Barsac are known for rich dessert wines. The grapes used for these dessert wines are Muscadelle, Sauvignon Gris, Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon. The grapes must be picked in an overripe state and therefore contain a lot of sugars. The best sweet wines are made from grapes affected by noble rot. In a warm and humid autumn, the botrytis cinerea fungus can affect the skin of the grapes, but not the pulp. The bunches may not look appetizing, but the wine made from them is liquid gold.