With more than 7,000 chateaux, France’s Bordeaux region is the most important wine producing region in the world. As well as being the basis for Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot-based wines everywhere, Bordeaux wines are acknowledged to be among the world’s best reds—according to experts and amateurs alike.
The wine region of Bordeaux is comprised of many smaller areas and encompasses both banks of the Gironde estuary in southwest France, as well as the land bordering the Garonne and Dordogne Rivers, which split off from the Gironde in the southern Medoc area. Generally, Bordeaux's best red wines are from seven major (and well-known) appellations: Pauillac, Saint-Estephe, Saint-Julien, and Margaux in the greater Medoc region, Graves to the south of the city of Bordeaux—in the region’s center, and Saint-Emilion and Pomerol toward the east. The large Graves region, as well as being the birthplace of claret, is home to many of the best dry whites. Premium sweet wines are made in Sauternes and Barsac, which are also within the Graves appellation but toward the south.
In understanding the multitude of Bordeaux wines, experts tend to talk about the right and left banks of the Gironde River. Generally, red wines from the river’s left bank, especially from Bordeaux’s Medoc region, are based on Cabernet Sauvignon, mixed with varying amounts of Merlot and Cabernet Franc and, occasionally, a spot of Petit Verdot and Malbec. These reds are known to be firm and dry, with a substantial tannic spine, and are frequently austere in their youth. They are also among the world’s longest-lived. The Graves’ gravel and sand soil content contribute to more texture early and roasted accents of hot stones, smoke and tobacco.
The softer Merlot grape is the foundation for right bank wines, mostly to the town of Libourne’s eastern side. These wines are fleshier in general than wines from the left bank and are more pliant. They are also accessible at an earlier age—though the best of them can improve in bottle for decades.
Wine Spectator, 96 points: This leans toward the tropical side, with mango and guava notes out front, while maple, date, blood orange and citrus oil flavors fill in behind. The finish kicks into another gear, taking off with honeysuckle, orange...
Wine Spectator, 95 points: This is a beauty, with the singed apple wood and juniper notes fully melded with the core of lush raspberry and blackberry confiture flavors. The edges are rounded off but the spine still drives through. Ends with...
jebdunnuck.com, 96 points: A wine that’s firing on all cylinders is the 2001 Latour and this beauty over-delivers in the vintage! Based on 79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Merlot, and the balance Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc, it offers incredible...
Wine Spectator, 96 points: Loads of ripe currants licorice and toasted oak on the nose. Subtle yet impressive. Full-bodied with a solid core of ripe fruit and chewy tannins. Big and juicy. Deep midpalate for a 2002. This is the wine of the vintage...
Wine Spectator, 94 points: Extremely pretty, with flowers, berries, chocolate and spices. Full-bodied, with a solid core of fruit and ripe, silky tannins; long and caressing. Beautiful. Palmer shows wonderful refinement. Best after 2009. –JS
Wine Enthusiast, 94 points: With its usual high proportion of Merlot, Palmer 2003 was always going to be a generous, very ripe wine. And so it is proving, but what is so satisfying about the wine at this stage is that the great sweet fruit, which...
Vinous, 90 points: The 1982 Suduiraut is the odd man out. In a period when the château languished in the doldrums, the 1982 pulled victory from the unlikeliest growing seasons. The bouquet shades the 1983 and the 1986 with effervescent...
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, 97 points: Beginning to open magnificently, the still dense purple-colored 2000 reveals a blossoming bouquet of blackberries, cassis, graphite and pen ink. Full-bodied with velvety tannins that have resolved themselves beautifully...
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, 94 points: Tasted from an ex-château bottle at BI Wine & Spirits Calon-Segur dinner in London. The 2000 Calon Segur is one of those wines that reminds you how great the millennial vintage could be. Now at fifteen years old, it has a...
TheWineCellarInsider.com, 96 points: Cigar box, jammy black raspberry, mint, ash, tobacco, cedar wood, cloves, cinnamon and wet forest floor notes start the fireworks. On the palate, the rich, sensuous, flamboyant, showy wine is a hedonistic treat for the...
Wine & Spirits, 96 points: Open the bottle and you'll find harmony in the glass but the wine remains subtle stony and mute as if the flavors lie behind a closed door. Over the course of several days that door begins to open the stoniness transforms...
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