| Bordeaux Wine |
Bordeaux wine, refers to all wine produced in the Bordeaux region of France, two hours north of the Spanish Border. Bordeaux is the second largest wine region in the world with nearly 300,000 acres devoted to vines, 57 appellations, 9,000 wine-producing châteaux, and 13,000 grape growers
With an annual production of over 700 million bottles, Bordeaux produces large quantities of everyday wine as well as expensive wines. Although the reputation of Bordeaux is based on its few prestigious red wines and the sweet white wines from Sauternes, Bordeaux also produces large quantities of ordinary table wines, including white wines, rosé wines, and a sparkling wine, called Crémant de Bordeaux.
Red Bordeaux is generally made from a blend of grapes. Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot, Malbec. Two other types have slowly seen their existence diminish, the Malbec and Carmenere. On the other hand, white Bordeaux is made from Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, and Muscadelle.
The Bordeaux region has an excellent environment for growing vines. The ecological foundation of the region is generally limestone, meaning that the soil is full of calcium, and the natural paths of the Garonne and the Dordogne rivers irrigate the land. Combined with the oceanic climate from the nearby Atlantic Ocean, giving humidity to the atmosphere, creates a desirable environment for grapes to flourish.
The Bordeaux wine region is divided into sub regions including Saint-Émilion, Pomerol, Médoc, and Graves. In 1855, a classification system, known as The Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855, ranked the wines into five categories according to price. The first growth red wines (four from Médoc and one, Château Haut-Brion, from Graves), are among the most expensive wines in the world, although in wine competitions they tend to be beaten by less expensive wines from various countries in blind taste tests. See, for example, the St. Catharines Wine Tasting of 2005, the Berlin Wine Tasting of 2004 and The Wine Rematch of the Century.
