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Bordeaux France Wineries
Bordeaux, France is known as one of the top wine regions in the world. The winemakers here have a focus on making the very best wines they can. On this map of France, Bordeax is the green area in the lower left. The most well known wineries are clustered right around the river you can see in the top left of the Bordeaux region. They are generally divided into "left bank" - to the west - and "right bank" - to the east.
While the wineries pour their heart and soul into the making of the wine, they have less of a focus on tourism :) It can be very challenging for a tourist to visit Bordeaux and get into any of the wineries. Wine lovers who are used to Napa Valley, where they drive from winery to winery and enjoy luxurious tasting bars with pours of a variety of wines, will be quite surprised at the difference in Bordeaux.
For one things, most Bordeaux wineries only make one or two wines, period. They aren't pouring out glasses of merlot and cabernet sauvignon and malbec. They pour their one blend wine. That's all they have. In some cases they might have a "second label" which is where the not-perfect grapes go.
A second difference between Bordeaux and many US wine regions is that the Bordeaux top wineries are so well known throughout the world that they sell out their entire stock before it's even bottled. They have buyers for every bottle of wine. They have no desire to keep cases of wine in their Chateau in order to pour it out for visitors. The wine is all already sold. Besides, if a bottle sells for $1,200 a bottle, is the visitor really going to be willing to pay the required $300 for a glass to taste?
So the best bet for a wine tourist who wants to explore the Bordeaux region is to talk with a local tour guide. The tour guides know which of the wineries actually do offer tastings, and what the arrangements are to get into those. Usually these are the middle-tier wineries. The top wineries have no need to run tastings. The lower wineries have no facilities and their tiny staff is already flat out busy keeping the winery running. It's the middle group which has spare bottles to use for tasting purposes and which has the staff to handle visitors.
Here are my notes from a week of wine visits - using a local tour guide - in August 2011! They are currently being added to, and are not complete yet. Check back regularly for the updates!
Monday
Flight to Bordeaux and Hotel
Tuesday
Château Tour Saint Bonnet
Cafe Lavinal - lunch
Château Lynch Bages
Château Mouton Rothschild
Château Pontet Canet
Brasserie L'Orleans - dinner
French Wineries
Winery Reviews Main Listing
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