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Bordeaux Wine Guide: Red Varieties

There are many factors which determine the style of a wine, not least climate and terroir, but choice of variety is just as significant. And although wines based on a single variety seem to rule in so many other regions and countries, from the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir of Burgundy, to the Riesling of Alsace, the Mosel and the Rheingau and the Chenin Blanc of Vouvray, here in Bordeaux almost all wines are blends. Thus, understanding Bordeaux from a varietal point of view usually involves an appreciation of what each variety can contribute to a blend, as finding a wine which is made purely from one variety or another is very rare. Only a few of these ‘monovarietal’ wines exist, of which perhaps the most notable are the famous Pomerols Petrus and Le Pin, both made purely from Merlot (this may not be true of older vintages of Petrus, but more recent vintages have certainly been 100% Merlot). Finding a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from the left bank to match these right-bank super-cuvées is even more difficult, necessitating a vintage-by-vintage search. The best example of a left bank wine that is pure Cabernet Sauvignon I can come up with is Château Lafite-Rothschild, although only in the 1961 vintage. In other years, both earlier and more recent, Lafite generally includes a healthy dollop of other varieties.

Even though their role is generally to contribute to a blend, rather than to appear in isolation, the principal Bordeaux varieties still define the style, character and aging potential of the wines. Of all the many thousands of red varieties known and cultivated, Bordeaux utilises just six, and of these six just three dominate. This section of my guide to Bordeaux gives some detail on this varietal sextet, concentrating on the aforementioned ‘big three’. In each of the varietal vignettes I present on the following pages I indicate where the varieties dominate and what flavours they bring to the wine, before looking at some more technical information including identification, genetics and links to significant research material available online (although purchase of the linked articles is usually required if you wish to read more than the abstract).

My red varietal vignettes are as follows:

Click on these links to see the individual vignettes. (5/5/13)