Bordeaux 2012 Primeurs: Moulis & Listrac
In the no-man’s-land between the villages of Arsac, Margaux and Cantenac to the south, and St-Julien-Beychevelle to the north, there lies a run of vineyards too-often overlooked. Hugging the river there are some faintly gravelly croupes classified purely as Haut-Médoc, and many familiar good-value names can be found here. Names that include Château Lanessan and Château Beaumont, both just south of St Julien in Cussac-Fort-Médoc.
Just inland from these Haut-Médoc vineyards are the communes of Moulis-en-Médoc and Listrac-Médoc, more commonly abbreviated (by me at least – but I’m certain I’m not alone in exhibiting this rather lazy trait) to Moulis and Listrac. The wines of these two communes, and the Haut-Médoc vineyards mentioned above, do not have the same high reputation enjoyed by St Julien or Margaux, to the north and south respectively. The reason for this distinction is geological. Both St Julien and Margaux are blessed with deep seams of the gravel that was deposited here by the Gironde, during the various inter-glacial phase when the estuary ran at a much higher level (because without glaciers, sea levels and thus river levels were significantly more elevated than they are today).
