Bordeaux 2013 Primeurs: Médoc
The 2013 vintage was never going to be an easy one for the vineyards of the Médoc, which are the northernmost outposts of viticulture along the left bank. For anybody interested in all Bordeaux, not just the big names, I strongly recommend a drive up here, although I also recommend you bring a warm sweater, a flask of coffee and maybe a suitably stuffed picnic hamper for your lunch. Although the distances are not huge, the long, featureless, windswept roads make it feel much further than it is.
The soils are colder here, damp clay rather than warming, free-draining gravel, eventually giving way to a more sandy landscape the further north you travel. As you approach Le Verdon-sur-Mer, the camper-van equivalent of Santiago de Compostela, the sand takes over completely, covering the tarmac roads and railway lines with the help of the winds coming in off the Atlantic. This little town sits at the very northern tip of the isthmus, looking out onto the mouth of the Gironde, and seems to appeal mainly to campers and, I suppose, anybody wanting to catch the ferry across to Royan.
