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.
TheWineCellarInsider.com, 100 points: Truffle, flowers, smoke, licorice, wet earth, dark plums and black cherry aromas reach your nose as soon as the wine hits the glass. Full bodied, sensuous and silky, the wine is deeply concentrated and also effortless to...
jamessuckling.com, 100 points: The aromas to this are incredible with blueberry, minerals, dried flowers, and stones. It goes to dried meat and spices. Full body and incredibly integrated with blackberry, licorice, and minerals. There's a wonderful...
jebdunnuck.com, 100 points: The 2009 Pontet-Canet continues to just knock it out of the park every time I’ve been lucky enough to drink a bottle, and this beauty was as good as it gets yet again. Deep purple-colored, full-bodied, beautifully...
TheWineCellarInsider.com, 100 points: (JL98-100 points) You have to like your grapes poured over a rock quarry to get this wine, but I love it. The color of Homer’s wine dark sea with levels of extract that coat your palate, teeth and gums. There is...
jamessuckling.com, 100 points: The nose is phenomenal with perfect aromas of Cabernet Sauvignon with currant bush, blackberries and minerals. A pure expression of Cab. The palate is perfect with a full body, but has perfectly integrated tannins with a...
Vinous, 100 points: The 2016 Tertre-Rôteboeuf is flat-out stunning and also one of the wines of the vintage. Rich, deep and explosive, the 2016 possesses remarkable depth and intensity from the very first taste. The 2016 is exotic...
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, 100 points: 2009 Vintage: Served from an ex-chateau bottle. The 2009 Chateau d’Yquem is one showstopper of a wine and perhaps it is only in a vertical that you realize this is up there among the legendary wines of the past – the 2001...
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, 100 points: The 2005 Troplong Mondot is a blend of 90% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc. It was emotional tasting this wine, thinking of the late Christine Valette, who made this compelling wine while battling with considerable...
jamessuckling.com, 100 points: This was phenomenal from barrel and remains so. The aromas are spellbinding. It smells like a bouquet of pink roses and then goes to currants, berries and citrus. Full body, with wonderfully refined tannins. It starts...
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, 100 points: (WA 97-100 points) The final blend of the 2017 Cos d'Estournel is 66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 1% Petit Verdot and 1% Cabernet Franc. Very deep purple-black in color, it offers up intense scents of crushed...
Decanter, 100 points: This stunning wine is still extremely young, with an amazingly expressive nose with tea leaf hints. The aromatics keep building and building in the glass, and the elegance and persistency shine through. This was a drought...
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, 100 points: The 2005 La Mission Haut-Brion is pure perfection. It has an absolutely extraordinary nose of sweet blackberries, cassis and spring flowers with some underlying minerality, a full-bodied mouthfeel, gorgeously velvety...
Decanter, 100 points: I was excited to retaste this wine after loving it so much at en primeur, and it has more than lived up to its promise. They seem to have poured layers of muscular black fruit into the glass in a display of Pauillac...
jamessuckling.com, 100 points: Blue fruits, minerals, lavender and licorice aromas are wonderful. Full body and ultra-refined tannins with an integration and refinement that make the wines seamless and beautiful. The powerful tannins hide from you at...
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