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Bordeaux: your questions answered
Words: Mark Pardoe MW & Georgina Haacke
Published: 7th May 2024
NINE-MINUTE READ
From grape varieties and key styles to storage and En Primeur, our experts tackle some of the most frequently asked questions about Bordeaux.
The region and the wines
What are the key styles of Bordeaux wine?
Bordeaux is best known for its full-bodied dry red wines, sometimes known as Claret. The region also makes both dry and sweet white wines, as well as rosé and even sparkling wines. The region is big and makes a lot of wine. The entry-level wines are simply labelled Bordeaux; they can be blended from anywhere across the region.
Quality rises as you focus more on specific sub-regions. Better wines from the area north of the city are called Médoc or Haut-Médoc. The best wines carry the name of even smaller communes, the most famous being Margaux, St Julien, Pauillac and St Estèphe. Here, Cabernet Sauvignon dominates, producing complex, long-lived red wines.
South of the city is the large vineyard area called Graves, which makes both red and dry white wines; the best come from Pessac-Léognan. The reds are more generous in style than in the Médoc, and the dry whites range from easy and delicious to some of the most complex white wines in the world. Further south, great sweet wines are made in Sauternes and Barsac.
Across the Gironde Estuary to the east of the region are St Emilion and Pomerol (and several other satellite regions), where Merlot predominates. These wines are lush, intense and more luxurious in style. Only the very finest are capable of ageing as long as the best Cabernet Sauvignon-based wines.
Mark Pardoe MW
How does Bordeaux wine taste?
Red Bordeaux can be broken down into two key styles: the Left Bank and the Right Bank. On the gravel soils of the Left Bank, Cabernet Sauvignon reigns, and the wines are medium- to full-bodied, with firm but chiselled tannins. They have heady aromas of blackcurrants and damsons in youth, taking on distinct notes of pencil shavings and cigar box as they age. On the Right Bank, Merlot dominates, supported by Cabernet Franc. Here, the style is plumper, with more blue and red fruits and softer tannins.
The Right Bank/Left Bank distinction is a useful starting point for defining styles. But in reality, there is striking diversity in the wines produced, even between neighbours. By manipulating their different terroirs, microclimates, combinations of grapes and winemaking techniques, producers here can produce a surprisingly broad range of styles. There is much to explore.
Georgina Haacke
Which grapes are in Bordeaux wine?
There is a wide range of grape varieties here, used in different proportions according to where the vines are planted. The Left Bank is known for having Cabernet Sauvignon planted on gravel, augmented by Merlot on heavier soils. In smaller quantities, you’ll find Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and, very occasionally, Malbec and Carmenère. The Right Bank focuses more on Merlot but with important contributions from Cabernet Franc and, occasionally, Cabernet Sauvignon – where the soils are more free draining, such as in the gravelly parts of St Emilion.
Bordeaux’s white wines, both dry and sweet, are made from Sauvignon Blanc and/or Sémillon. Very occasionally, you’ll find small proportions of other minor varieties including floral Muscadelle and Sauvignon Gris, which can lend some weight.
Mark Pardoe MW
What are the best Bordeaux wines?
Bordeaux is a large region with over 5,000 producers. The wines range from the everyday to some of the finest available anywhere. The best Bordeaux wines are found where particular geologies are combined with well-adapted grape varieties.
The best sectors of the Left Bank lie within famous communes like St Estèphe, Pauillac, St Julien, Margaux, Pessac and Léognan. It is in these areas that the gravel soils are at their deepest.
The Right Bank has more varied soils. But in St Emilion, the best wines come from vineyards around the village of the same name, on limestone; or mixtures of gravel and clay to the north-west of the village. These wines are produced predominantly from Merlot, but often with a good proportion of Cabernet Franc.
The Bordeaux region also has a famous series of classifications. These vary according to each sub-region, but all the wines (known as Classified Growths, or Grands Crus Classés in French) have the words Cru Classé on the label. While not foolproof, this is a useful starting point for finding the best Bordeaux wines – although the omission of those words does not necessarily mean the wine is inferior.
Mark Pardoe MW
Buying Bordeaux
What does En Primeur mean?
En Primeur, sometimes known as “wine futures”, is a process that allows you to buy Bordeaux wines in the spring immediately following the harvest. The wines are still maturing in barrel, and it can be up to two years before they’re bottled and released onto the market more widely.
In most cases, consumers won’t have the opportunity to try the wines themselves before purchasing. Instead, they rely on the opinions of wine merchants and critics, who descend upon Bordeaux in their droves for a week just prior to the wines being released.
Wines at this stage of infancy can be difficult to taste, but critics and professional Buyers look for specific attributes such as the nature of acidity, tannins and balance. From there, they determine how the wines might evolve over their remaining time in barrel and bottle. When you buy En Primeur, the wines will arrive in your cellar about 18 months later.
Georgina Haacke
Why should I buy Bordeaux En Primeur?
If you’re hoping to start or build a fine wine cellar, En Primeur is a great way to start. The pricing is often competitive; the wines cannot necessarily be accessed at this price once released onto the market more widely – and some will not be accessible at all.
Once they’ve been released, it can be harder to secure the exact wines you want, let alone in your preferred format. (You can often order half bottles, magnums and other formats En Primeur.) So buying En Primeur helps you avoid disappointment. Buying through a reliable merchant, who subsequently stores it for you In Bond, allows you to guarantee the provenance of your wines.
Many of these wines represent a significant investment, so you want to be sure of the authenticity and storage history of the wines you are buying. This will enable you to enjoy the wine yourself over its evolving lifetime, reassured in the knowledge that it’s at its best. It also means that you can resell it at its full market value if that’s the decision you make.
Georgina Haacke
Storing and enjoying Bordeaux
How should you store Bordeaux wine?
Not all Bordeaux wines need to, or should be, stored extensively. The main reason for storing a wine is to allow it time to integrate, for the tannins to soften, the acidity to round and for the wine to achieve a sense of balance. For more entry-level Bordeaux wines, this is usually achieved by the time of bottling. So you can just open these wines and enjoy them.
However, the higher you climb up the quality ladder (with the Classified Growths, for example), the more intense and complex the flavours and the tighter the tannins and acid structures. These wines need more time before they enter their drinking window. Indeed, wines from top châteaux in the best vintages can take up to a decade to become approachable. Once there, they’re considered youthful but drinking well; ageing beyond this point is simply a matter of taste.
As a fine Bordeaux ages, the fresh fruit flavours take on notes of leather, dried fruit and tobacco. Acidity and tannins feel softer, and the wines gain in complexity and intrigue. It’s a wonderful process, and you can sample the wine at different stages if you’re lucky enough to own a case. The wine will continue along this path until the structure fades. The flavours may then mutate into something less desirable, and the wines can become lacklustre – so don’t age them indefinitely. It is also vital to store your wines in suitable conditions if you’re hoping to entice out these favourable flavours: ideally between 10-15°C, away from temperature fluctuations and excessive light.
Georgina Haacke
How long does Bordeaux wine last?
As a broad rule of thumb, for the simplest red wines, the wine is made to be drunk on release. But you can expect the wine still to be good after three of four years. In the middle quality range, the red wines usually benefit from being about five years old, and in good vintages they can last a further 10 years. Wines from very good châteaux may need up to 10 years to approach their best and may have a drinking window of at least another 15 years. The very finest will need 10-15 years at the start but can then last for decades.
Dry white wines are mostly made to be drunk on release. The very best can need at least five years to open up and can mature and develop for a surprisingly long time after that – even for two or three decades. The great sweet wines of Sauternes can certainly be drunk young, but they will also last indefinitely. With age, they become slowly drier and increasingly complex.
All these estimates rely on the wine being correctly stored at a stable, cool temperature, with sufficient humidity and without exposure to light or vibration. Outside those parameters, the wines age more quickly. If the storage temperature is too high, the wines may spoil through oxidation, and will certainly mature more quickly.
Mark Pardoe MW
How long should you decant Bordeaux wine for?
How long to decant a Bordeaux depends on factors such as the blend, the style and, most importantly, the age of the wine. The purpose of decanting is two-fold.
Firstly, decanting separates wine from its sediment. Sediment is an entirely natural feature of wine, formed either as a byproduct of winemaking (such as yeast or grape cells) or of wine ageing (tartrates or pigmented tannins that fall out of suspension over time).
Secondly, it allows the wine to breathe following its time spent in the bottle. The air releases any accumulated gases, as well as the wine’s aromas and flavours. This gives the impression that the wine is more “open”, with softer tannins.
When deciding how long you should decant Bordeaux for, there is a general rule of thumb: the bigger the wine [bolder flavours, fuller body, higher tannins], the further in advance you should decant it. For most wines, somewhere between 30 minutes and two hours will probably be enough. For a wine from a top château, made in any of the warmer vintages of the past decade, don’t be afraid to open it several hours before serving.
On the other hand, for fragile, older wines, too much air might cause those precious remaining fruit aromas to fade. In such cases, a very careful decanting immediately before serving will suffice.
Georgina Haacke
What is Bordeaux 2023 like? How does it compare with other vintages?
Bordeaux 2023 is delicious. It does not have the power or intensity of 2022 and, as the potential crop was quite large, these are wines that are more about aroma and purity than power. But that is not to say they are light.
There are some very lovely wines from the Left Bank and some delicious examples from St Emilion and Pomerol. The wines do have plenty of depth and they will age well over the medium term, but they will also drink well in their youth. With much warmer growing seasons than before, it is hard to make a comparison with older vintages. But the liveliness of the vintage is akin to 2021, but with more depth and tannin. Others draw a comparison to 2019, a very good vintage, although 2023 is probably not as concentrated.
Mark Pardoe MW
