Bordeaux 2015 Primeurs: Médoc
Life is tough in the Médoc, or the Bas-Médoc to be more precise, the low-lying lands north of Saint-Seurin-de-Cadourne and Cissac-Médoc. It can be a cold and windswept place, the natural vegetation lining the roads rich in sea buckthorn, yellow-flowered gorse and other hardy, heavy-thorned coastal plants rather than anything more delicate. The fields concealed by these spiky hedges tend to be given over to pasture rather than the vine.
Nevertheless, this region has a long history of viticulture. The soils are typically sand and clay, and the further north you go the more beach-like the terroir becomes. Indeed, go far enough north and you come to Soulac-sur-Mer and Le Verdon-sur-Mer, the first looking out onto the Atlantic, the second looking inwards onto the muddy tidal waters of the Gironde. If the names of these little towns aren’t clue enough, the roadside signs for moules frites say something about the proximity of the sea here. Indeed, we could be in the Nantais.
Gravel terroirs are not so common here in the Médoc, although they can be found, little islands rising up above the clay and the sand. Indeed, some of these gravelly mounds really were once islands, water having once lapped against their slopes. The vineyards of Goulée are planted on one such hill, the low-lying land all around, once an inlet of the Gironde, has long since silted up. But these gravelly islands are an exception, as a rule the soils are colder and less well-drained. No wonder that, in the vineyards, Merlot tends to dominate.
