Bordeaux Wine Region in France: World's Most Famous Fine Wine Region

Bordeaux is the largest wine region in the world. It's also no doubt the most famous. It produces more of the world's fine wine than any other, and they have been a benchmark for others to follow.

Although Bordeaux is predominantly a red wine region, it also produces some of the world's finest white wines — like the dry whites from Graves and the sweet wines from Sauternes. No two wines are alike, yet they all posess qualities that make them Bordeaux.

In the future we will explore in detail this region — its history, its appelations, its wines, and its famous Châteaux.

As you can see on the map, the Bordeaux region is divided by the Gironde and the Garonne Rivers into two zones. On the west side, there is the Left Bank or the Médoc and Graves with its capital city of Bordeaux, and the Right (east) Bank or the Pomerol and St-Émilion, that surrounds the smaller port city of Libourne. Between the two is the large Entre-Duex-Mers (between two seas) district. Each of these zones has a different history and distinct geographical conditions.

Within the Médoc are the world famous communes of St-Estèphe, Pauillac, St-Julien, Margaux. South of the City of Bordeaux is Pessac-Léognan and Graves, producing most of the regions great whites, and the sweet wine producing communes of Barsac and Sauternes. The Right Bank is dominated by the communes of Pomerol and St-Émilion. The châteaux are fewer and typically smaller. Northwest of Pomerol are the increasingly important communes of Fronsac and Canon-Fronsac.