Bordeaux

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Bordeaux Wine Trails                                                          

Bordeaux is the heart and soul of the world's finest wine trails - to hear the merest whisper of one of the following names is enough to bring a smile to many a wine lover’s face and help to make mouthes water. In less than one hour you could be visiting one of the world's most famous and historical wine chateaux including Château MargauxChâteau Mouton RothschildChâteau Angelus and Château Moulin St Georges, to name but a few.

“If we sip the wine we find dreams coming upon us” D.H.Lawerence 

AOC Bordeaux Spring Wine Festivals

Each appellation within the Bordeaux region holds an annual spring wine festival. These tend to follow one of two formats:

  • “Portes Ouvertes” Wine growers remain within their Chateaux and open their doors to the public for wine tasting (degustations), feasting and often musical events – fun days.
  • “Printemps des Vines” - Wine growers gather together into one place and hold one big gourmet wine tasting festival.

These type of events provide a fantastic opportunity to taste wine from a variety of chateaux. For example oaked, non-oaked, good vintages, red wine, rose wine, white or perhaps a sparkling wine (Cremant). Hopefully, you’ll discover a bargain – a marvellous “wine gem”. 

Bordeaux Wine Appellations & Chateaux

Bordeaux’s grandest wine estates (known as Chateaux) are divided into various “Appellations of Control (AOC)” A rough guide of the local divisions are briefly as follows;.

  • Left Bank of Gironde estuary includes the Medoc and Gravesplus some sub-regions Haut-Medoc including Pauillac, St-Estephe, St-Julien andas some would say one of the world��s grandest wine - Margaux, which is home to very aristocratic reds: Château Margaux, Château Mouton Rothschild The Graves area is known mainly for red wine, leading south to Sauternes with famous sweet white wines. (and sub regions of Pessac-Leognan.) Bas-Médoc is located to the north of the medoc and is simply known as "Médoc".

  • Right Bank of Gironde estuary includes the Libournais and the Cote de Bourg and Cote de Blaye. The Libournais includes the sub-regions of  Saint Emilion and Pomerol (among others) - home of most expensive and historic bottles of reds. The Maison du Vin in Saint-Emilion is a good place to start. 

  • the City of Bordeaux and the Entre-Deux-Mers, so called because it lies on the island area between the Garonne and Dordogne rivers, which combines to form the Gironde river. This region contains several less well known sweet wine areas of Cadillac and Croix de Mont.

Bespoke Wine Tours

French Vineyard Vacations is centrally located and less than 1 hour from all the above AOC areas. The Medoc is only a short boat ride away – the Blaye / Medoc car ferry is only a 5 minute drive away. We do offer bespoke wine tours and more detailed information about the fabulous local wines and various estates. Please contact us for further details.