In southwest France the marriage of wine and culture is a tradition centuries old.
Bordeaux with its harmony of history and terroir has come to exemplify the majesty of fine wine.
In the World of Wine, Bordeaux is one of the most recognized and treasured.
Collectors are happy to pay hundreds of dollars a bottle for top wines, like Château Margaux, to get them into their collection.
But what's often overlooked with all the fame and glory these wines attain
is that they really only represent five percent of the total Bordeaux Market.
Bordeaux produces a wide range of wines, to put things into perspective, there's as
much wine produced in the Region of Bordeaux as in many entire New World Wine countries.
The region has over 13000 growers, 9000 Châteaus, and 57 different Appellations.
In this episode we're going to travel through Bordeaux and discover all that it has to offer.
The 18th century city of Bordeaux is a thriving Metropolis at the heart of the Bordeaux Region,
built on trade the city is France's Southwest Port with commercial links across the globe.
The city is an undiscovered pleasure of French culture and charm, although sometimes
overshadowed in terms of tourism, the slower pace contributes to the bordelaise ability
to appreciate food and fine wine. Even today Bordeaux remains the capital of the Wine World.
The Garonne River, the region's main thoroughfare, flows in and out with the rising tide
making the city built on its shores a natural port.
By the 17th century, merchants of various nationalities began establishing firms on the bank of the Garonne
to act as négociants, or agents between the wine producers of Bordeaux and the world marketplace.
So that today the people at large celebrate the pride of Bordeaux.
"The core reason why people are interested in what we are doing is just because it's terribly good to drink, so it's
it's a great wine, gives a pleasure. You look at it, you smell, you swallow and you feel better"
"I think when you think about wine, European wine, the first thing you think about is Bordeaux.
Bordeaux is the center of the Wine World".
Bordeaux's prominence, as a Wine Region today, can be traced back to one famous document.
In 1855 Emperor Napoleon III wanted to showcase the finest wines of the country at the Paris exposition,
so he challenged recognized brokers of the day and had them develop a list, ranking the Châteaus of Bordeaux.
And this is the list. It's known as the Official Classification of 1855.
Many of the great names then are great names now.
Latour
Margaux
Lafite
Haut-Brion
Rothschild
Here was the origin of the concept of fine wine. Wine sold by the bottle with a sense of place and history included.
Other classifications followed and expanded throughout Bordeaux.
"Bordeaux is certainly not just expensive wines, however those expensive wines are the symbol of
Bordeaux and, as the French would say, the locomotif. They're what drive the industry here"
But we're here to discover and demystify the broad elements of all Bordeaux wine.
The center of the Wine World became such because it produces wines for every lifestyle and every
budget, even today the styles of Bordeaux wines have and are evolving, do as much to
the competition from the new world producers as to the differing taste of an expanding marketplace.
With thousands of Châteaus producing wines, each distinct to its terroir,
the vast array is perhaps the most dizzying aspect of the industry. How do we make sense of it all?
Well, the first step is geographic.
Bordeaux, with 100 000 hectares under vine, is France's largest quality wine region located on the Southwest Coast.
The main waterway is the Gironde estuary
with its two tributaries, the Dordogne and the Garonne, which served to divide the region into three distinct zones:
the Left Bank, Entre-Deux-Mers and the Right Bank.
Each and every bottle of Bordeaux is made under the Appellation d'origine contrôlée or AOC regulations.
The label indicates geographically where the grapes have been harvested and, in the case of a Château,
where the wine was made. All of which contribute to the concept of what the French call 'terroir'.
"The whole ethos of Bordeaux is based on terroir. Terroir means not only the ground in which
the grapes are grown but also the atmosphere, the weather around and drainage, it takes into account
all kinds of aspects about how that grape was grown".
"The main thing to remember about Bordeaux wines, both red and white,
is that they are a blend and that thereafter, they are a blend of really principally three red grape varieties,
Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc,
in various combinations depending on where you are in Bordeaux. And Sémillon and Sauvignon for the white".
The most readily affordable wines of Bordeaux come from grapes harvested from all areas of the region,
this is usually the product of a négociant, who is involved in the entire wine making process, from
the purchase of the grapes, to the final blending and aging of the finished wines.
"Making a blend is just trying to bring to the consumer the most complex and harmonious wine you can you can make"
Paz Espejo is a winemaker for the Négociant Calvet, in business since 1818.
In response to increasing competition from New World Wines, Calvet like others in Bordeaux, has been revitalizing itself.
"I don't think we have to copy,
because the interest people have always had in Bordeaux is because there was a special personality. I think we don't have to lose this personality
because we will never make the same kind of wines at the New World, we're not in Australia, we're not in Chile, we are in Bordeaux
and we have to understand what Bordeaux is and try to improve the quality as much as we can".
The basic grape varieties used for the blending of Bordeaux red wines are Cabernet Sauvignon and
Merlot with Cabernet Franc and, to a lesser extent, Malbec and Petit Verdot, to round off particular styles.
"Cabernet Sauvignon brings acidity, tannins, so structure, spiciness, aging capacity.
Merlot, for example, brings fruitiness, the floral side, the violet, the rose petal.
So both seems to be, logically, a good complement, a good balance. And Cabernet Franc brings more or less between both,
it is spicy but at the same time it brings acidity. So it is fresh and brings aging capacity too".
"The winemaker can actually adjust the quantities of these different grapes in different years.
So if one year the Merlot doesn't ripen as well as the Cabernet Sauvignon,
he'll put more Cabernet Sauvignon in, so it's really a winemaker's wine"
"What I want is,
Vintage after Vintage, to bring to the consumer the best expression, the most beautiful wine"
The next step up, in terms of quality, is what is known as Bordeaux Supérieur.
Yvon Mau is another large-scale Négociant Firm, shipping over four million cases a year.
Founded in 1897, Yvon Mau owns or represents a number of Bordeaux's smaller producers, among
them Château Ducla, a generic Bordeaux that has recently been elevated to Bordeaux Supérieur status.
"The main difference between Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur it's more consistency of quality".
"The three principle differences are that the Supérieur has to have half a
degree potential alcohol more, it has to have a slightly lower yield and it has to be aged
for slightly longer in barrel, therefore intimating that it is a slightly more structured wine".
"We're not so fond of grapes and we think that the terroir is much more important than the grapes,
to give you an example and to be more precise, we think that the Cabernet produced in
Médoc would be very different from the Cabernet in California, just nothing like".
One of the finest qualities of Bordeaux lies in the balance.
"It cannot be too much something, it could not be too much alcohol, too much tanning, too much acidity.
The art of Bordeaux, the mystery of Bordeaux is to be a good balance
and this balance must be, normally, with the food".
This is the Médoc, a place the French refer to as the 'Promised Land of Cabernet Sauvignon'.
'la Rive Gauche' or the Left Bank is comprised of the Médoc along with Graves and Sauternes
and it's here that we'll begin our journey through the Appellations of Bordeaux.
October, the culmination of a year's hard work in the vineyards,
the harvest traditions remain strong here with many of the same people returning year after year.
Timing the harvest is critical to obtain the optimal balance of sugars and acids in the fruit
and ultimately, to express the character of the vineyard.
The soils in the district are quite poor for growing anything other than grapes
but the rocky and gravelly soils retains heat and drains easily, which makes it ideal for the late ripening Cabernet.
"The Médoc is Cabernet Sauvignon dominant, that's the grape and Cabernet Sauvignon is a very small berry
and a small berry means a large surface of skin and therefore, the wines are quite tannic.
These wines tend to be more austere, they need to longer aging
than on the Right Bank, where it's Merlot dominant".
In their youth many of the red wines of Bordeaux,
although approachable, can be tight and complex. Over time these characteristics
give way to leather tones, tobacco and dried fruit. Now the Vintage of a wine
also contributes to its ageability. All wines, even wines from extraordinary Vintages, eventually peak and later decline.
The finest Vintages can be aged for up to a hundred years in the right conditions, all the while appreciating in its subtle and complex qualities.
How far back do the wines go in here? "Oh.. 1881"
An interesting cellar within the Region lies at Château Batailley in the commune of Pauillac.
These bottles are a testament to the Region's history
and each year the Château will add four to six thousand bottles for future generations.
This is quite the collection.
"This is the library, this is the memory of Batailley. 1982..."
Philippe Castéja is the Château owner and serves as chairman of the Médoc Classified Growth's Organization.
What a library. "Oh yeah"
That gives a new definition to libraries. "Yeah.. exactly
Every vintage in Bordeaux is different, and this climate, this adverse climate sometimes, has
made our consumers to be searching this Vintage or that Vintage because
they want a wine which is going to be to be drunk younger or a little older"
So this is something that's going to last" "Yeah, it's going to last for a century or so
and but I'm sure that in 20, 25 years, it's going to be excellent. Why don't we make an appointment?"
Okay. I'm going to get my calendar, I'm going to put that in.
"Okay, sold" Absolutely
The Médoc offers all sorts of quality wines including mid-level priced wine, called Cru Bourgeois.
One of these is Château du Taillan, whose traditional approach is mitigated by some unique factors in its ownership.
"We are five girls owning the Château at the moment and we are very fond of this Château.
And we really want to go far with this Cru Bourgeois and to do the best we can for this wonderful Château.
So here we are in the old cellar from the 16th century.."
The Château itself was built in the 18th century and has been in the Cruse Family for over 100 years.
Today even the barrel cellars, or Chai, are classified as historical monuments.
"The tradition is very important, especially in the Château du Taillan, as this Château belongs to a very
old family, the Cruse Family, my family and so we try to keep this tradition but to modernize slowly
this tradition in order to keep the authenticity to the wine".
Cru Bourgeois producers have become very sensitive to the success of New World Wine.
"The market has changed since five years in the Cru Bourgeois.
We know that nowadays many people produce wine in the world and the only secret for us, in Bordeaux, in the Cru Bourgeois, in the Médoc,
is to produce quality wine".
Traveling a little further South we come to the heartland of the Bordeaux Region.
Graves
Graves is the French word for gravel
and the best Châteaus here are located on distinctive gravel outcrops, called 'croupes'.
Unlike most other areas of Bordeaux, Graves produces both red and white wines.
This is Château La Louvière, owned by André Lurton, one of the most influential producers in the Region.
He has been a potent force in the development and promotion of the Graves Region.
"Wine can be made well anywhere in the world with sunshine and good soil,
what differs are the overall characteristics of the terroir
and we have our own special characteristics, which comes from our soil but also from our blends"
The Graves Region has a reputation for producing the highest quality dry white wines of Bordeaux.
White wine production here combines the traditional methods with modern techniques,
the white wines of the Region use both Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon.
"These are the top dry white wines from the Region of Bordeaux, which these days would all have been fermented in barrel
so the character tends to be a citrus character in youth, a crispiness to them and an ageability".
Moving East and across the Garonne River, we find Bordeaux's second geographic zone
Entre-Deux-Mers, this is one of the largest growing areas in Bordeaux and where the
négociants harvest most of their grapes. However it's only the white wines of the Region that can
be labeled with the Appellation Entre-Deux-Mers.
Entre-Deux-Mers literally means 'between two seas' but in this case it's between two rivers,
the 'Dordogne' and 'la Garonne' and this is where they meet.
In between them, you'll find the largest mass of vineyards in all of Bordeaux.
Since the 1970s, many growers have been planting the red grape varieties in response to the market demand,
through advances in technology Entre-Deux-Mers has increased both the quality and quantity of their yields.
"This is a bargain place to shop for white and red wines, wines that come around quickly, that
are very good with food. And the whole thing about Bordeaux is how well it matches food,
many of the big wines from the New World that one enjoys drinking are overpower food".
Tthe ancient people thought it was a sea, that is the reason why they called Entre-Deux-Mers, between two seas.."
Château Bonnet in Entre-Deux-Mers, is another of André Lurton's properties
an state also serving as his family home. He inherited this property in 1956
and has since elevated the Château's red and white wines to new heights.
"About 50 years ago we decided to transform it and make a dry white wine and this is a dry wine, fruity
and friendly, easy to drink, easy to understand".
Now we leave the thriving vineyards of Entre-Deux-Mers
and travel North across the river, to Bordeaux's third geographic zone, the Right Bank.
As we've seen on the Left, in the Médoc and Haut-Médoc, the soils are really gravelly and the blends from that side are
dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon. Over here however, the soils are more clay and limestone and Merlot
thrives in this Region and is the predominant varietal in the blends from these areas.
The wines here have always been more forward in character than their austere cousins across the river.
Now some may think that this is a newer region but you'd be wrong.
"Saint-Émilion hallelujah! Saint-Émilion hallelujah! Saint-Émilion hallelujah!"
Saint-Émilion, a beautiful medieval fortress town, with hilly cobbled streets running
through ancient limestone buildings, has been designated a world heritage site.
With a history stretching back over 800 years
Saint-Émilion was a wine region when much of the Médoc was only swampland.
"You could mistake a good Saint-Émilion for a Pinot Noir, because they have that
sweetness of fruit and they're very accessible at a young age".
The largest wine estate here is Château Laroque,
producing Grand Cru and Grand Cru Classé wines, the blend consists broadly of Merlot
supported by Cabernet Franc with just a touch of Cabernet Sauvignon.
"I believe that the styles of our wines is our history,
it's our soils, it's our characteristics and our personality".
Bruno Sainson, the director at Château Laroque, is completely involved in the winemaking process.
"These are wines that are going to express our terroir,
they have a certain generosity of taste, with very fine tannins and further refinement in barrel.
But this refining is done to enhance the wine's quality not to mask or dominate".
The harvest reaps its bounty from the land, much as it has for hundreds of years
but there's a constant revitalization in Bordeaux wine adapting to the land, to the weather and even
to the tastes of the marketplace.
"Terroir is much more important than just the soil, it's the situation, it's for prevailing winds coming from the East,
it's the work that we do throughout here to till the soil, to treat the vines. All that comes in the notion of terroir
and the French believe that is more important than the grape variety".
This is Pomerol, a small Appellation on the Right Bank that has never been classified,
yet produces some of the most expensive wines in the world.
A small plateau with world-class Châteaus making on average a thousand cases a year.
The clay, sand and pebbled soil is so variable that vineyards only a few feet apart produce
wines that taste vastly different from one another.
"We're standing on the edge of the most expensive lawn in the world, the lawn of Vieux Château Certan,
but from the plateau where we are
you can see really the jewels of the Pomerol area. There's La Conseillante, l'Evangile,
Pétrus, Lefleur and behind the Vieux Château Certan, which is this Château here, we have Trotanoy,
L'Église-Clinet, Le Pin. All surrounding the plateau.
If you can see it's quite pebbly, they're lots of small pebbles.." It really is.
The roots within each of the vineyards on this plateau burrow down into the clay-based soil,
deriving distinct characteristics from a variety of mineral elements.
"When people grow Merlot outside of France, they look to Pomerol as the model and what they would
like to, what they'd like the wines to taste like".
"Pomerol's wines are known for their very rich,
almost overtly fruity flavors. We always talk about Merlot having red fruit characters, raspberry, cherry,
those flavors and there's a spiciness that is really known from Merlot from Pomerol".
At a typical Pomerol estate, the yields are kept very low to enhance the quality of the grapes.
The wine is fermented in cement vats, each corresponding to a different parcel of the vineyard.
Now why would you keep them separate?
"Well here, for example, this is Merlot grown and sandy soil, Merlot on clayey soil and the Cabernets"
And you ferment them separately for what reason? "Because each wine grown on different soil reacts
differently, so perhaps it would take a longer fermentation or would need to be pumped over
more often or it would be picked later, so it's good to keep them apart for as long as possible".
The Right Bank has hidden, undiscovered gems
full of surprises, keeping that Bordeaux reputation for quality and, at the same time, affordability.
"People really don't know about the smaller regions in Bordeaux. The Côtes.
The Côtes de Blaye, the Côtes de Bourg, the Côtes de Franc, the Côtes de Castillon, the Premiere Côtes de Bordeaux.
We're going to learn more about them because these guys are making very good wines indeed and very inexpensively".
Located in the Northern part of the Right Bank the Appellations, collectively known as the Côtes,
including Côtes de Blaye, Côtes de Bourg and Côtes de Castillon, generally consist of smaller wineries
making unique offerings on an affordable basis. Unknown for the most part outside of wine circles
these wines may well become much more celebrated in the future.
Bordeaux as a Region, is certainly known for producing fine dry wines but the area of Sauternes,
South of the Graves Region, is renowned the world over for its sweet white wine
A varietal blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon and Muscatel grapes is only the beginning,
the essential ingredient here is called Botrytis or 'noble rot', nature's gift to the area.
"The Botrytis breaks down the grape and helps concentrate, both sugar and acidity"
Botrytis comes about, when the warm tidal waters of the Garonne meet the cooler Gironde river,
creating a fog that envelops the vineyards in its proximity causing the fungus, known as Botrytis.
When conditions are right, harvesters work painstakingly through successive pickings
to select only individual berries that have been properly affected by the noble rot.
We spoke to Corrine Reulet, from Château La Tour Blanche,
about the selection process for these grapes.
"So, I will show you a very good example
of the different stages of Botrytis. First you have a berry like this, with
maturity. After you have this kind of berry, which turn brown and the last stage is this
kind of berry, which is very dry, very concentrated with high sugar, high acidity and special flowers".
When the grapes have been harvested they're sorted and scrutinized by the Cellar Master,
because the degree of Botrytis will determine the quality of the finished wine.
The grapes are gently pressed, resulting in an elegant and voluptuous wine with flavors
of honey and exotic fruits. Good Sauternes will continue to evolve with age for 50 years or more
with the fruit and acidity giving way to honey and vanilla character.
The first time I get the try Sauternes right from the cast, this is a real treat. How long do you leave it in the barrel?
"It's fermented for two or three weeks and after that, it's aging on, at least, for 16-18 months"
This is great
Look at the color. '"It has a very nice color, uh?"
For many people, when they think of Sauternes they think of it only as a dessert wine but when else would you serve this?
"It's very good by itself, as an Apéritif and it's very famous on a with a Foie gras as well and
it goes very well with white meats, like chicken or veal and it's very, very good with some cheeses, like Roquefort or Blue.
My favorite is my, is with Roquefort".
Excellent, this is beautiful. "Yes, it is"
Bordeaux is a Region steeped in history.
Quiet, stately and seemingly unchanged for centuries.
But here, where tradition is the foundation of their industry,
progress and revitalization are occurring as they never have before.
"Certainly the 1980s probably saw improvements in vinification, the 1990s have been improvements in viticulture".
"I think there has been a style change in all the years that I've been drinking Bordeaux
and I can see it particularly now, that the French Vintners are aware of the International Market.
They see what their competition is and they're no longer 'resting on their laurels'".
"We have adapted all the time, it's an old tradition to change, in every single gesture there is a margin of progress".
Bordeaux has long been recognized as the benchmark many winemakers strive for. Although its popularity
may seem overshadowed by New World Wines labeled by varietal, the area is rich with tradition and
continues to produce an exciting range of products, that are sure to satisfy any palate or occasion.
We hope you've enjoyed this episode. If you have comments, we'd like to hear from you.
Our email address is: discover@lcbo.com