Left Bank - St Emilion & Pomerol

Wines made in these AOCs tend to be Merlot and Cabernet Franc dominant. Merlot originally from Aquitaine, is the most common grape variety in the Bordelaise vineyards.  It is blended most of the time with Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc, the oldest grape variety, for freshness and finesse with notes of raspberry and violet. Merlot brings color intensity, suppleness, and fleshy red fruit aromas such as plum, blackcurrant, cherry, fig, violet and sometimes toasted scents from wines that have been aged in oak. These wines that can be enjoyed young without a long ageing process.

Most of the 15 Premiere Cru Classé St. Emilion wines comes from the estates located on the Cotes. The Cotes is the limestone, rich, hillsides that surround the little village of St. Emilion. The 2012 classification names 82 estates: 64 Grands Crus classés and 18 Premiers Grands Crus classés.

History

The town of Saint Emilion, its vineyards and 200 kilometers of underground galleries under the village is part of the UNESCO World Heritage list as a Cultural Landscape. Formerly known as Ascumbas, St. Emilion is named after the Benedictine monk from Brittany, Emilian who came to seek refuge in the local caves & forest during the 8th century. The monks who followed him started commercial wine production in the area even though vines were grown here prior to the Roman invasion.

Saint-Emilion wines are promoted by the Jurade, the oldest wine brotherhood in France, created in 1199 by King John of England who delegated his powers to the noblemen of the region and the village. In 1383, the Order of the Cordeliers, founded by Saint Francis of Assisi, were permitted to build a church and cloister inside the town where they lived and worked up to the French revolution in 1789. The Romanesque architecture is well preserved in the town’s Medieval Citadel, where visitors enjoy the Cloisters, monastery, Bell Tower, gardens and underground wine-cellars, which store the white and rosé sparkling Cremant wine using the “traditional method” that has been made there since 1892 from local grapes.

Small red fruit, fig, cooked prune, rose, peony, and toasted almond.

Violet, red berries, truffles, and game.

The Médoc lies between the Atlantic Ocean and the left bank of the Gironde estuary. It is made up of 3 kinds of terroirs: Garonne gravel, Pyrenean gravel, and clay and limestone soils.  Situate at the 45th parallel, the temperate oceanic climate here encourages vine growth in small domaines and vast wine estates.

Cabernet Sauvignon is known for its structure, tannins as well as intense aromas of blackcurrant, liquorice, and after some ageing the finesse of underwood. Thanks to its low alcohol content, this grape has a great capacity to age. Cabernet Sauvignon was a formerly a cross between Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. 

5 Châteaux are classed as Firsts, 14 as Seconds, 14 as Thirds, 10 as Fourths and 18 as Fifths, spread over 5 of the 8 AOC appellations of the Médoc (Saint-Estèphe, Pauillac, Saint-Julien, Margaux & Haut-Médoc) and one in the Graves region.

Pauillac Aromas : Blackcurrant, Plum, cigar box, tobacco, pencil, and cedar.
Saint-Julien Aromas : Blueberry, blackcurrant, blackberry, plum, tobacco, and licorice.
Margaux Aromas : Raspberry, cherry, and currant, but also floral, spicy, and roasted aromas

Right Bank Graves

Pessac-Léognan is in the northern part of the Graves (gravel), along the Garonne river, and represent the oldest wine-growing region of Bordeaux. Its hilly relief is made up of unique gravel deposits made up of red, pink and multi color quartz and quartzites, which came to to rest here millions of years ago. The soils under the Graves is diverse, and create the nuances and various expression of each winemaker found in the great wines of Pessac-Léognan. The vines also benefit from two natural regulators. To the east, the Garonne river which softens the frost and, to the west, the forest, which acts as a wind barrier and keeps up humidity levels. 

Red wine from Graves was known as Claret and loved by the English during the 300 years that Aquitaine was under English rule. Pessac-Léognan is home to Château Pape Clément, the oldest property in Bordeaux,  founded in 1306 and Château Haut-Brion, the first château of international renown in the mid 1600s.

Red Aromas : Toasted almonds aromas of ripe fruit, currants, and violet.

White Aromas : Broom blossom, hazelnut, citrus, acacia, beeswax, peach, and nectarine

Sauternes